The papacy of Pope Benedict XVI is not defined by its "train wrecks"

Most interesting comment on Father Z's blog in response to his fisking of a USA Today article that quotes John L. Allen Jr and George Weigel.
Here's a relevant excerpt of a lengthy comment by Prof. Basto:

The article then returns to the mode of universal criticism of the papacy (without question, criticism directed specifically against the present papacy of Benedict XVI, although this is implicit) . Allen says that the papacy is “adrift and has been for a long time…(It is) a papacy defined by its train wrecks”. Surely he is referring to the facts of Benedict XVI’s pontificate that caused a media crisis.

And by saying that it is a papacy defined by its “train wrecks”, he says that the current pontificate is a failiure. Well, I beg leave to disagree. It is the Papacy that is fighting secularism more vigorously since the Second Vatican Council; it is the Papacy of Summorum Pontificum, that opened for every priest once again the possibility of praying the TLM and the other liturgical actions in the usus antiquor; it is the first papacy since the Council to have indicated a clear interpreative key that should be used to read the Council documents and that should be used to discern the correct attitude that should have presided, and must preside, the post-conciliar period: the hermeneutic of continuity; it is a Papacy that is attempting to restore liturgical decorum; it is a Papacy of courage, that is discussing with the SSPX the delicate subjects related to the reconciliation of the conciliar magisterium with preconciliar teaching, it is the Papacy of Christian Unity, that is transforming the generic “Ecumenism” drive into a true call to conversion to the one Church; it is the Papacy of Anglicanorum coetibus, etc. It is not a Papacy defined by train wrecks.

Amen!

That does not mean the Holy Father does not have significant opposition, people who pay lip service but do everything they can to undermine his agenda all the while with a smile on their face and their hands prayerfully clasped together.

Also, the more opposition in the mainstream media, the more they try to define you as a train wreck, the better you are probably doing in the economy of heaven. That is, of course, unless you are guilty of grievous sin, in which case you deserve the fact that what is done or said in secret is shouted from the rooftops.

What Benedict has said and written will last. The headlines will be gone. The newspapers will be lining my bird cage if they haven't gone bankrupt first.