If you look at the pope's job as pope and the jurisdictions that are his within the Church, it is an awesome job if we were to elect a 58-year-old cross country skier, hiker and former soccer goalie in superb health as we did with his election in 1978. The Church, like many major institutions, has found it necessary to create bureaucracies, curial and otherwise, to govern in his name at lower levels and to divide this worldwide Church into many local jurisdictions known as dioceses, each with its own bishop or archbishop or patriarch who governs locally in the absence of extraordinary situations.
The principle of subsidiarity (local governance where possible) is a very old and Catholic tradition not just a good idea of Lincoln's. The principle is neutral and works well in most circumstances. Whenm however, your archdiocese is Milwaukee and you have Rembert Weakland as your archbishop who maintains a sideline of diddling or being diddled by (we are not so specifically informed) an ex-seminarian, local authority can be a bit of a problem. Rembert dahling directly defied and disobeyed the orders of Church courts not to wreckovate the Cathedral of St. John in Milwaukee including the installation of a statue of his heretical and despicable self in the vicinity of the altar.
The Church also has Canon Law and an elaborate structure of due process of law. Just because the application of due process thwarts some desired breakneck speed in bringing miscreants to justice does not mean that due process itself is a bad idea or that it should be riddled like swiss cheese with exceptions to satisfy the savage mob (of which I am personally a proud member in good standing).
We Catholics mark history by centuries and millenia and not by newspaper headline.
Thank you for a generally civil response. I think you will find, however, that while some lavender mafia may exist at the Vatican, it hardly controls the flow of information to this pope in such a way as to protect the queens. Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger has the pope's ear as much as any man on earth and is no protector of lavender queens or miscreant bishops. Many, many others in curial leadership share his commitments and practices. One difficult thing for non-Catholics and many Catholics here to understand is that the American church (AmChurch) is effectively in disobedience and schism and has constantly to be brought to heel on matters of little interest to non-Catholics like the specific words used in the Mass to keep the orthodoxy of it intact.
The youngest but most capable of popes would be severely challenged as an administrator in such times as these. This Polish fellow of ours has done a remarkably good job on the apparent policy for which he was chosen: damaging what was in 1978 perceived as a very vulnerable Soviet Union. He has done a very good job in other respects like many of his encyclicals and particularly Veritatis Splendor (The Splendor of the Truth) and Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life). He is now the third longest reigning pope in the long history of the Roman Catholic Church and it is very evident that his race will soon be run.
A real danger is that he will become very incapacitated and no longer able to rule. There is no provision for deposing a pope and he is apparently committed not to resign. The Church, BTW, is not about to recognize secular things like "brain death" as indicative of an opportunity for a new conclave. If such an interregnum (effectively) should occur and last for a few years, the world as a whole will suffer and not just Catholics. JP II is one of the few counterweights to the ongoing dissolution of Western Civilization itself. As one example, no secular leader in the West has the ability to recruit Moslems and Islamic nations or enjoy their trust in common cause as he does on matters like abortion in United Nations gatherings.
I am particularly fond of Ut Unum Sint.
Have a very Merry Christmas.
I agree with most of what you've been posting, BlackElk, but folks have been forecasting JPII's death & disability since the 80's. He's still got it in the top story, though his physical abilities have gone back and forth a bit. He has Ratzinger and Sodano to take care of the details so he can focus on the big picture and spread the Gospel within and outside the Church. Some think a younger, more physically active pope is needed, but in my view JPII's spirit and obviously physical cross exemplify the role of Christ's vicar on earth.
Hear hear.
I pray such a thing never happens but hope that Catholics have the fortitude to reject utterly the deathist pseudo-science and false charity that would cause them to falter in defending the dignity of life in word and deed should the Pope fall unconscious before his death.