Did Pope Benedict Leave Signs that He Remained the Pope?

It may seem strange, but I will begin answering that question by looking at William Shakespeare. For decades scholars argued about who Shakespeare really was. Some insisted that Christopher Marlow was the true author of the plays. The Earl of Oxford was another. In recent years more and more evidence shows that, in fact, Shakespeare was Shakespeare. 

He was the son of John Shakespeare, a recusant who kept the faith, a local low-level politician who resigned his office rather than take the oath of supremacy. His son William's missing years were probably spent being educated on the continent which explains his broad knowledge of Italy, particularly Venice. Another indication of his Catholicism was his ownership of a house in London used for secret Masses. It was exposed when a floor collapsed under the weight of several hundred Catholics hearing the Mass. [Brief article on Shakespeare's Catholicism.]

Of Shakespeare and Radical Agendas

My Shakespeare book club met yesterday to discuss The Merchant of Venice. After talking about the play and its topical allusions to events of the day, i.e., executions of the Jesuit martyr Robert Southwell for being a Catholic priest and Elizabeth's Jewish physician for allegedly plotting her murder, etc. we watched the film version of the play with Al Pacino as Shylock and Jeremy Irons as Antonio (2004).

Appalling is too tame a word to describe what the director, Michael Radford, did to Shakespeare's script although many modern critics celebrated the film which made Shylock the hero and the Christians the villains. It as an anti-Christian, pro-homosexual rant that twisted Shakespeare in every which way to meet Radford's own perverse, modern agenda which was apparently to turn Shylock into a tragic hero and cast the Christians as the devilish demons and Jew persecutors.