Oh, Pope John is quite retired, that's for sure.
Posted on 09/25/2001 12:30:42 PM PDT by Dog Gone
The Pope has been unable to finish his speech and sat slumped in his throne during a visit to an Armenian church.
A priest finished reading the 81-year-old pontiff's address.
John Paul had arrived in Yerevan, the Armenian capital, for a three day visit to pay tribute to the country's ancient Christian church.
Oh, Pope John is quite retired, that's for sure.
But I doubt that this Pope would want to. He wants to give every last drop.
Where in the world did you get that?
ROME, Italy (NEWSROOM) -- A recent wave of speculation that Pope John Paul II might resign for health reasons has presented the Catholic Church with a possibility it has not witnessed for nearly six centuries -- a "former pope."
For many, the notion of a papal "retirement" sounds strange. Could the Catholic Church have "two popes?" Vatican rumors reported by Italian newspapers -- whether true or not -- have helped fuel popular misconceptions about the papacy, Catholic theologians say. According to Rome's La Repubblica, the pope asked Vatican experts a few years ago to study the feasibility of his resignation. The answer, the newspaper reported, was that the church would be "unable to cope with two popes" -- one reigning and the other in retirement.
While a Pope John Paul II retirement might pose certain challenges to his successor, it would not threaten the viability of the church, explains Catholic theologian Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, president of the Institute on Religion and Public Life in New York City. There would not be "two popes," he said. "He is pope by virtue of being the Bishop of Rome," Neuhaus told Newsroom. "If you want to get real technical about it, nobody is ever elected pope. One is elected the Bishop of Rome, and whoever is elected the Bishop of Rome is automatically pope, because he is the successor of Peter, who in Catholic teaching was the first Bishop of Rome. Once he's not in the office of Bishop of Rome he is no longer pope."
Both La Repubblica and Milan's Il Giornale said last week there were "insistent rumors" within the Vatican that the pope's health would cause him to retire after Jubilee Year celebrations for the Millennium are completed. Early last week, Germany's highest ranking Roman Catholic, Bishop Karl Lehmann, touched off the rumor mill by conjecturing what might happen if the pope were to resign.
To many, Catholic and non-Catholic alike, the "infallibility" and adulation bestowed on the pope gives him a sense of mystery just short of divinity. "Because of the esteem for the pope in the Catholic tradition, there are many Catholics who ascribe a great deal more power and influence to a pope than the pope really has," says Fr. Thomas Rausch, professor of Catholic theology at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.
Part of the problem is that the doctrine of infallibility is widely misunderstood. "Infallibility has nothing to do with the pope's holiness, his relation to God," says Fr. Richard McBrien, professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.
Infallibility is a function of the position of the pope, not his person, and has a very narrow scope, referring to a "solemn pronouncement" on morals or doctrine that is guarded by the Holy Spirit against teaching error. Catholics believe that, unlike the Bible, such pronouncements are not divinely inspired, but are simply free from error.
"Infallibility isn't something that popes carry around with them, or that they use everyday," McBrien said. "Most popes live and die without ever having exercised an infallible act." The last infallible act was in 1950, the declaration of the dogma of the Assumption of Mary into heaven.
McBrien, author of "Lives of the Popes: The Pontiffs from St. Peter to John Paul II," notes that there is historical precedence for a papal resignation, but the last one occurred in 1415. At least four popes have resigned or abdicated their office before death, he said. The most recent one, Gregory XII, resigned during the Great Western Schism in order to clear up multiple claims to the papacy.
In one case the church encountered difficulties having both a reigning and retired pope, says McBrien. Pope Boniface the VIII, who came to power in 1294, kept his popular, but physically frail predecessor St. Celestine V under house arrest because he feared that Celestine would still have a following. Some believe that Boniface had pressured Celestine to resign.
Some Catholic clerics have expressed a fear that if John Paul II were to retire, his charisma and following might unduly sway his successor and the College of Cardinals who elect him. "I do think there would be a certain pressure," says Rausch. "He's such a strong personality that I suspect his influence would still be felt if he were still alive and there was a conclave to elect a new pope."
Where did you read this?
One of those "end times" rags?
The Pope has never said anything like this. Besides, John Paul II has appointed most of the cardinals, and most of them are conservative.
This is a pontiff that obviously took his role in his church to heart. May all religious leaders prove so deserving of their titles.
But the College of Cardinals (that will elect the next pope) must be largely constituted of John Paul II's own appointees, right?
The following Popes have abdicated:
Marcellinus in 304 A.D.;
Liberius in 366 A.D.;
Benedict IX in 1045 A.D.;
Gregory VI in 1046 A.D.;
St. Celestine V in 1294 A.D.; and
Gregory XII in 1415 A.D.
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