Pope resigns, wants to collect some sweet retirement benefits

For the first time in 600 years the Pope will resign. Really? So every Pope since 1415 has died in the Papacy?

I'm not sure why I'm surprised. I mean let's be honest, John Paul II had died two years before his "death" and the Cardinals were basically operating his waving hand with a long stick from behind his chair, weekend-at-Bernie's style, until they were ready for a new guy.

Additionally let me point out that the Pope is really just a figurehead of the men who really wield the power in the Catholic church, much as Valerie Jarret is the puppet-master at the White House and Obama is merely the puppet. There is a cabal of Cardinals who attend to the Pope, and it is they who write the speeches, set the travel agenda, establish political positions, and most importantly, make sure the money keeps coming in. They, and not the Pope, basically operate the vast empire that is Catholicism. So what difference does it make who the Pope is, really?