An emeritus here, an emeritus there. Pretty soon you’re talking about a lot of popes.

From Newsmax:

Francis gave an book length interview to an Argentinian journalist. He said, apparently, “I will be pope, either active or emeritus, and in Rome. I will not return to Argentina.”

Francis is a high-risk candidate for COVID.

Note the openness to being “emeritus”.

Meanwhile, at Corriere della sera, the Pope now considered “emeritus”, gave a short interview. English account at CNA gives a brief summary of scrambled, incoherent piece at Corriere.   At some point in the interview Benedict must have said the piece’s opening line, “Non ci sono due Papi.  Il Papa e uno solo… (ellipsis in the original)”, that is, “There are not two Popes.  The Pope is one only….”  What was in the ellipsis?

Benedict seem to have stood by his decision to resign.  “Credo di avere fatto bene”, which is a little ambiguous.  It can mean, “I think I did well (to have done it)” or “(I think I did it (the resignation) well”, although for the latter, I would have said, “Credo di averlo fatto bene”.   But maybe he did say that.   The reporter says that Benedict’s voice was veil thin, came and went, and that Gänswein sometime repeated/interpreted.

TWO emeriti?

???????!

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10 Comments

  1. WVC says:

    99 Bishops of Rome on the Wall.
    99 Bishops of Rome.
    Take one down.
    Pass it around.
    98 Bishops of Rome on the Wall.

  2. Is Pope Francis really, seriously thinking about abdicating? Or is he just playing with people? One of his overarching policies seems to be never to commit himself unequivocally to anything one way or another, if that can possibly be avoided.

    Personally, I fear the day Pope Francis abdicates. For one thing, I don’t think it would be a good thing for the Church for papal abdications to become a thing. But most of all, I fear that if this particular Pope abdicates, it will be to make way for Francis 2.0.

  3. VForr says:

    I find the whole papal resignation business strange and most unwelcome. It takes away from the sacredness of the office and makes it no different than a business or government entity. I work for local government and I have had four bosses in five years (two resignations, one firing, and one still at the helm). Are the Vicars of Christ joining the ranks of elected politicians?

  4. JMody says:

    I’m thinking of the silly movie “Three Amigos” where the villain, El Guapo, is fed up and demands to know
    “What is going on around here today?! Are gringos* falling from the sky???!!!”

    *or emeriti

  5. VForr says: I find the whole papal resignation business strange and most unwelcome. It takes away from the sacredness of the office and makes it no different than a business or government entity. I work for local government and I have had four bosses in five years (two resignations, one firing, and one still at the helm). Are the Vicars of Christ joining the ranks of elected politicians?

    The attitude that the priesthood is a “job” like any other, and that parishes and dioceses should be run along business lines, has been around for a long time. This is the long seepage of the Calvinist, pro-drudgery, anti-sentiment ethic into the Church (which, by the way, is also a bad philosophical basis for running a business). Probably goes a long way toward explaining why so many priests and bishops found it so easy to lock people out of their own churches and deprive them of the Sacraments over the last year. They don’t think of themselves as the fathers of families, and they don’t think of us as deserving of respect and affection. They don’t love us. We are only valuable to the extent we serve their purposes at the moment.

  6. monstrance says:

    Next there will be a second Sunday Collection for the Pope Retirement Fund.
    Call it “Peter’s Parachute”.

  7. Josephus Corvus says:

    I realize that this will not be a popular opinion, but what bothers me is the “do as I say, not as I do” philosophy of sticking around. Example: “Cardinal Sarah! You’ve traveled around the sun too many times! Hand in your resignation! Meanwhile, I hang around.” It’s the same thing at the lower levels in which parish priests “have” to tender their resignations at 70, while their bosses can hang around to 75.

    Now I fully realize that the Pope can set or break pretty much any process rule he desires by virtue of the Office, but a little more standard application or consistency would be nice.

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  9. dallenl says:

    Let’s not get carried away. We are talking about someone who felt he could no longer do the requirements of the job and felt for the good of the Church to make way for a more fit occupant. Although we are not talking about a simple parish priest, the principle is the same. I might add that I have known several clerics of different rank, though not a Pope, who should have recognized their limitations somewhat earlier. Finally, when there were three claimants in the 13th Century, one resigned, one was removed and the remaining one took the chair of Peter. It was recognized as an unusual but not forbidden process. The position may have been divinely established but the occupants after Peter were not.

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