Abdication by the Pope now would be in the best interest of the Church. The current sex scandal involving the Pope's brother and the institution in which the Pope worked, creates a grave situation (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/09/pope-brother-violence-school). This combined with evidence that he has suppressed the crimes of some priests (http://article.wn.com/view/2010/03/25/Religion_Pope_protected_Wisconsin_pedophile_priest/) and perhaps high ranking members of the Church hierarchy gives the Church the public face of not only complicity in the crimes but allowance for them as priest caught in these crimes were reassigned to other churches so they could act again.
Abdication by a pope is not new, but it has been done in the best interest of the Church in general.
In 1294, Pope Celestine V promulgated a Canon law explicitly establishing the right to resign the office of Pope, and did so himself after being in office only about five months. Before his election, he had lived as a hermit, and afterwards considered himself unworthy to fulfill the duties of the papacy. on new innocents.
The last pope to abdicate was Pope Gregory XII in 1409; he did so to end the Western Schism. At the time, there were three claimants to the papal throne, Roman Pope Gregory XII, Avignon Pope Benedict XIII, and Antipope John XXIII, successor of the election at the Council of Pisa.
The time is now, Benedict should show he is capable of sacrifice to cleanse the Church of the continued implication that he is guilty of wrongdoing and condones sexual misconduct. It also time for the Church to allow priests to marry and for women to be ordained. We have to recall that in the early Church women did lead mass and the community in prayers. There is no reason and no scripture to limit their participation.