Benedict XVI to resign - first Pope to quit since 1415

I do find it interesting how said prophecy apparently is largely considered a forgery by a lot of the church, and how the rest of the church has done everything it can to somehow fit every pope into it somehow.

Nobody other than the participants knows what really goes on in a conclave. Benedict XVI is over age 80, so he wouldn't be eligible to vote. I don't know if he would be able to participate in the Concave at all. He's not a member of the Sacred College anyway, right? And the participants aren't supposed to discuss who they're going to vote for.

I wonder what he's planning to do in his "retirement". There really isn't much precedent for being an "ex-Pope".

I suppose the next one could just go right overboard and take the regnal name "Peter II". That would be really sweet.

edited 11th Feb '13 9:32:30 AM by Lawyerdude

Does he keep the name or not?

He could recommend a successor or put his backing behind one of the choices.

Agreed. He wasn't no John Paul II, but he really didn't do anything too outrageous either when you get down to it. But still, a Pope retiring before his time is... strange, and bound to cook up a million different conspiracy theories, no matter the actual cause.

There is one other thought that crossed my mind though. What if Benedict is actually doing this as a means to encourage future Popes to resign their posts if they are no longer capable of effectively serving in it, to the point of becoming nothing more than puppets or symbols like John Paul became near the end? It's a smart idea to encourage, especially when the average human lifespan has drastically increased with all the advances in medical technology avaliable.

EDIT: WOW, did I get ninja'ed quick. I was supposed to be responding to Fighteer's post!

edited 11th Feb '13 9:35:31 AM by SgtRicko

Move back into some role in his previous sinecure, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith? Of which he used to be Prefect, as seen here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congregation_for_the_Doctrine_of_the_Faith

edited 11th Feb '13 9:35:53 AM by TamH70

That's just it - no one knows.

Just by being alive he's going to influence the election. It's a politics game, and no one is going to want to rock the boat by advocating for a liberal while an ultra-conservative predecessor is still alive.

He'll probably retire out of the public eye, to a convent in Rome or somesuch. What d'you expect a sick old man to do?

edited 11th Feb '13 9:36:49 AM by TheBatPencil

His letter closed with: "With regard to myself, I wish to also devotedly serve the Holy Church of God in the future through a life dedicated to prayer."

I figure he'll retire to some monastery out in the country. He clearly doesn't want the responsibility that remaining a Cardinal would involve. And if he wanted to keep running things and thought he was able, he wouldn't be stepping down in the first place.

It does sound like he's going to go hole up in a monastery somewhere. I do hope that his successor does a better job than he did.

edited 11th Feb '13 9:43:56 AM by shimaspawn

To clarify, we can talk about his actions all we want. But calling him "evil", or "horrible", or wishing him "good riddance" is aiming a bit low.

How does this decision work theologically?

There is long-standing precedent for this in the form of Celestine V. I believe he does not keep the name, as it was his papal name, and he is no longer pope. However, the name will be considered "used" - so the next pope cannot be Benedict XVI, but Benedict XVII. His resignation raises no theological problems, but it is unexpected in the extreme. But it raises no theological issues - Pope's can and do resign. They just haven't for years, but they never abolished the power. The Good Book says nothing about the Vatican's internal administration; the Vatican bases its authority on a bad pun made by Jesus: TU ES PETRUS ET SUPER HANC PETRAM AEDIFICABO ECCLESIAM MEAM - "You are Peter, and on this Rock I shall build my church. Peter founded the Roman church. Q.E.D, the Roman church is supreme. The pun comes from the Latin (and Greek), where Petrus (Peter) and petrus (rock) have the same meaning.

The pope is only considered infallible when speaking ex cathedra, so there are no problems there. Popes almost never speak ex cathedra. Funny that.

I do wonder what the next pope will call himself. Since 1900, we've only had a Leo, 3 Piuses (Pii?), two Benedicts, two John Pauls, a Paul, and a John. Gregory hasn't been used for a while, nor has Clement, or Innocent. Pius is probably out of fashion because of Pius XII, who was a curmudgeonly old sod that no-one liked (even leaving aside his contentious WWII record). Alexander, Urban, Sixtus, Hadrian, and Julius haven't been used for years, but some of their predecessors where horrid. There again, so were all the Johns until John XXIII. Other possible but unlikely names include Celestine, Nicholas, Eugene (please God no), Stephen, Callixtus, and Victor.

Personally, I want something good and Latinate. Something with "us" on the end. Hadrian would be cool too.

@Tam: Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is not a sinecure, but one of the most important offices in the Catholic Church. Unless you consider all Vatican posts sinecures and I'm missing some sarcasm.

edited 11th Feb '13 9:52:54 AM by Achaemenid

Popes tend to take names of importance to themselves. Usually a previous Pope that they admire.

I wondered about the theological implications of resignation. I remember years ago when JP 2 was sick they were speculating that he could step down. I suppose since the Pope makes the rules he can do whatever he wants with the office.

There was also a Pope Lando. The next could be Pope Lando II!

edited 11th Feb '13 9:52:13 AM by Lawyerdude

You suppose correctly. Also, JP 2's slow decline and senility was apparently extremely damaging for the Church, as everyone clamored to fill the vacuum until a new Pope turned up. Benedict may have wanted to avoid that.

On that whole Doomsday Prophecy thing, since the last pope is given the name "Petrus Romanus", and Petrus or Petra is just another word for "Rock", are there any Cardinals with an interest in geology? Or who have some association with rocks?

Is Dwayne Johnson Catholic?

edited 11th Feb '13 9:56:56 AM by Lawyerdude

Well, if Peter Turkson is elected, then he will be Peter, Bishop of Rome, at least until we get a regnal name...

um.

Anyway, doomsday prophecies aside, I like the idea of a black African Pope for much the same reason that I liked the idea of a black American President; it just feels like the time is right. Also, because say what you like about the fossil that the Church may be in the First World, in the Third World it's almost unambiguously a good thing and a source of charity for a continent that doesn't have a hell of a lot of charity in it; a Pope from Ghana will be keenly aware of this and likely put some emphasis on the Church's duty to the poorest parts of the globe.

Honestly, I'm rather glad he's resigning. I don't hate him. I wish him well. However, I found his treatment of both Homosexuality, and of the Pedophilia in the Catholic Church extremely bad.

Especially the of the pedophilia. He was much more concerned preserving the church's image than actually helping the victims, or removing the offenders. I hope the next Pope is, if not more progressive, less regressive.

Cross-posted from the Troper Covens Christianity thread:

So, the Pope just declared that he will resign at the end of the month.

I... I was not expecting it. At all. Still — and without giving any credit, at least for now, to any of the inevitable theories about this being due to internal pressures or scandals or whatever — this gives a very interesting signal, I think.

While, as a Catholic, I have nothing against the role of the Pope, I must admit that I have been (and still am) concerned about what I see as a quasi-cult of personality around the figures of the Popes: for example, I really did not like how the previous Pope was proclaimed a Saint so quickly and against the usual regulations (it's not that I have anything against John Paul II, it's just that I think that these rules exist for very good reasons and should not be messed with).

By resigning because of old age, just like one could resign from any other position, Benedict might have dealt a strong blow against this mythologization of the figure of the Pope. The role is a very important one, which carries lots of special responsibilities; but as I see it, this decision emphasizes the fact that the person involved is not some sort of mystical, magical being, but a typical human being who can change and grow old and decide they are not up to the task anymore.

EDIT: OK, I'm dumb. John Paul II has not been made a Saint yet. "Only" a Blessed. Still, my point stands, that was done much too quickly.

edited 11th Feb '13 11:35:38 AM by Carciofus

Also, because say what you like about the fossil that the Church may be in the First World, in the Third World it's almost unambiguously a good thing and a source of charity for a continent that doesn't have a hell of a lot of charity in it; a Pope from Ghana will be keenly aware of this and likely put some emphasis on the Church's duty to the poorest parts of the globe.

I presume that the 'almost' refers to its impact on African attitudes towards contraception and homosexuality? Because that's a pretty big 'almost'.

Worse, unlike the most of Europe and Britain, it still ties its aid to treatment of abortion and contraceptives in some cases.

The Daily Kos are calling foul, saying that Benedict is "only as sick as his secrets." I'm intrigued by the possibility, but I doubt it. Even if he has skeletons in the closet, the Vatican is very good at cremating these things before they hit the public eye. Illness is still most plausible to me, but we'll see.

My other theory (and perhaps some atheist blog could circulate this, obviously satirically, as a riposte to the Lady Hope story), is that he was sitting in the Basilica one day and suddenly thought..."God doesn't exist." Then he will tour India in a VW Camper Van with some hippies.

edited 11th Feb '13 11:30:39 AM by Achaemenid

Well, I'm very sad to see Pope Benedict go, but I do hope that the next pope won't be Bill Donohue of the American Catholic League like in the South Park episode "Fantastic Easter Special".

An extremely holy and well-meaning man, by all accounts, and one of our era's deepest philosophers and theologians. He introduced a real renaissance of Augustinian scholarship and thinking, both as Cardinal and Pope.

Administratively, he wasn't as memorable—returning the Church's house in order and purging it of scandal can't be done in a day, but Benedict often seemed unable to effect his will through the Church bureaucracy. This gave an overly free hand in remedying the sex-abuse scandals to the local and national bishoprics, which tended to stonewall, or do nothing, or respond in misconceived ways that harmed the innocent. This administrative weakness also meant that he had little luck implementing reforms to the Mass, or reversing several post-V2 innovations that one imagines he wanted to overturn.

On balance, though, he was a fine Pope, and I can't think of a single alternative choice at the time who would likely have been half as good. Some largish slippers to fill there. May God guide the College in the coming months.

Carciofus for Pope!

This is something alright, I'm not really buying the entire impending scandal thing, if such a thing was coming then I could imagine the pope standing down after, but standing down beforehand just means whoever comes after is going to have a mess on their plate from day one, and whatever else you might have to say about Benedict XVI, I think we can all agree that he doesn’t want to damage the church, which is exactly what leaving a new pope with a massive scandal would do.

For anyone interested, here is Wikipedia's list on the potential successors. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_papabili_in_the_2013_papal_conclave

edited 11th Feb '13 11:25:11 AM by Silasw

The only people I don't want to get it are Angelo Scola and Christoph Schonborn, because the last thing the Church needs is another European in the post. Any of the rest would be fine, though it would be a daring move for there to be a Phillipine pope and a clever one for there to be an African or South American.

He was the Pope, what would you expect?

If the reason why Johnny resigned is because of an upcoming scandal, it's gonna be a big one