Retirement plans
FUTURE popes will have to retire at a fixed age, under secret plans being discussed by Catholic cardinals, ending a tradition of service until death that has lasted 2000 years.
According to senior church sources, cardinals have discussed among themselves the need to choose a future pontiff who is open to a retirement age, probably 80.
They do not want a repeat of the past few years, when the ill-health of Pope John Paul II, now 84, has forced him to take an increasingly light role in directing the church, responsible for the spiritual welfare of 1.1 billion believers.
The church has in effect been run by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the ultra-conservative head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. But Cardinal Ratzinger, whose nickname is John Paul III, is considered too old, at 77, to succeed him.
Also at the heart of every decision is Joaquin Navarro-Valls, the celibate Opus Dei member and qualified doctor who is the Pope's media officer and most trusted adviser [Source].
Religious reporting is notoriously unreliable and this article is no exception. The headline for this story is just plain misleading "Church calls halt to popes for life." Some alleged source gives away secret plans that future popes "will have to retire" is just mistaken. A new Pope could decide to retire at a fixed aged, but any decision he made would not be binding on any future popes. This article is just plain silly with Opus Dei references and saying that Cardinal Ratzinger is actually pulling all the strings. I have never heard of Cardinal Ratzinger being nick named John Paul III. I wonder if their is any veracity in this or if this is just another piece of bad reporting by agenda journalists.
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Wasn't there some prophecy or visionary or other that said the next one's going to be the last one? I certainly hope so.
Aw, come on, Jeff. SEE THROUGH THE LIES! OPUS DEI IS RUNNING THE WORLD!
Don't you know ANYTHING? It's all in "The Da Vinci Code!" It's totally true too! Cause it says it is! In the foreward! No one just realized it until Dan Brown put it all together!
Yeesh. I was hoping that article would have been in a tabloid, but it looks like that's an actual broadsheet.
Since when is Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger "ultra-conservative"?
The other night when it was reported that the Holy Father was hospitalized one of the local news station's promos here in South Florida was "Catholic Crisis: The Pope Hospitalized." The media knows nothing.
You should tell the folks at GetReligion about this.
For 2000 years the papacy has been like the Sacrament of Marriage - 'til death do us part.
The media love nothing more than to post conjecture and spin it as reality. According to that article, the next pope had better drop dead within certain term limits or the cardinals will annul his papacy .. like that could happen.
The media has no clue. They think being Pope is just a job....
"You know, Dad, you raised us kids, got us through school, taught us our faith, modeled for us how bring the light of Christ into the world. Now that you're old, frail, and can't get around like you used to, you can stop being our Dad."
Actually, I planted the story. If I can't stay anchorman at CBS until I die, then no one else should be able to hold a position until their death either, especially the Pope! After all, he is such an obstacle to making the world a better place through euthanasia, selective parenting, stem cell research, cloning, and liberal presidential Administrations. I also have documents that prove the Pope failed to show up for scheduled drill weekends when he was in the Texas Air National Guard and that he was given special treatment by Walter Cronkite.
I heard some of this on NPR this morning, that some people at the Vatican are upset that an incapacitated pope leads to bickering among his possible successors and a period of not getting anything done. Sometimes, perhaps a period of bickering and getting nothing done might be a needed and good thing, don't you think?
Amen for not getting anything done. The drive to change constantly is foolish and destructive. The appetite for change, good or bad, when once it's awakened, hurries one to adopt the strangest and most pointless innovations, from fear of being outdistanced. Besides, we don't know at all that nothing is being done: does anyone think that the Holy Father is permitting his sufferings to pass without assistance to the Church? I don't doubt he's doing the most important thing of all, which is penance.
So now Cardinal Ratzinger is only an ultra-conservative?
They used to call him an ultra-arch-conservative.
Right Billy, which makes one wonder what the media would say about a traditionalist Church leader.
Puting limits on a job set up bu Christ... now thats bravery :)
" Sorry Lord, But you didn't do it right, Let me show you how."
" Sorry Lord, But you didn't do it right, Let me show you how."
Wow Jim, that sounds like auxiliary Bishop Gumbleton.