Can a Pope be Removed from Office?

Canon Law Made Easy ^ | January 31, 2013 | Cathy Caridi, J.C.L.

[Weiss White]

Q: In a recent piece you explained that the Pope can resign if he chooses. To me that raises another question: What would happen if a Pope became so mentally debilitated that he didn’t know what he was doing? It seems to me that he wouldn’t be able to resign under those circumstances. Is there some legal mechanism that would allow the Church to remove him, and call for a conclave to elect a new Pope? Or is there at least a way for the cardinals to take charge of running the Church until that Pope passes away? –Paul

[mmichaels1970]

Interesting article. Quite a lot of explanation resulting in what appears to be a very short, direct answer.

[Oztrich Boy]

Oui

[TSgt]

The Pope can even meet with Hitler and not get fired.

[raygunfan]

and why should he have been fired for that? unless you are one of those misguided anti catholics who accuse the then pope of being in cahoots with that nazis...

[Smokin' Joe]

Sure, his Boss can call him in and deal with the situation...

[Claud]

Those are not papal vestments. That’s a Cardinal.

And it doesn’t look like Pacelli...I think it’s Cesare Orsenigo, who was nuncio to Germany and was never Pope.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-H26878,_Berlin,_Neujahrsempfang_in_der_neuen_Reichskanzlei.jpg

Nice try though.

[Claud]

Yep. Cesare Orsenigo.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Orsen.jpg

[Claud]

Actually, my mistake. Not only was he never Pope, he was never even a Cardinal. He was only a Monsignor.

[mmichaels1970]

Those are not papal vestments. That’s a Cardinal.

Great catch Claud!

According to this article:

Eugenio Pacelli, both before and after he became Pope Pius XII, never met Adolf Hitler.

[teeman8r]

God decides when to call a pope home.

[teeman8r]

Sure, his Boss can call him in and deal with the situation...

IWIST

your answer was better said than mine. i wish i said that.

thanks

teeman

[Claud]

Call him home, or call him to account. Either is possible. ;)

[Alex Murphy]

No, but he can be dug up, put on trial, and then made to swim the Tiber:
THE CADAVER SYNOD: STRANGEST TRIAL IN HISTORY

[Rashputin]

They probably had digging up the Pope in mind when they dug up Cromwell :

On 30 January 1661, (symbolically the 12th anniversary of the execution of Charles I), Cromwell's body was exhumed from Westminster Abbey, and was subjected to the ritual of a posthumous execution, as were the remains of Robert Blake, John Bradshaw and Henry Ireton. (The body of Cromwell's daughter was allowed to remain buried in the Abbey.) His body was hanged in chains at Tyburn. His disinterred body was thrown into a pit, while his severed head was displayed on a pole outside Westminster Hall until 1685.

However, many people began to question whether or not the body mutilated at Tyburn was in fact that of Cromwell. These doubts arose because it was assumed that between his death in September 1658 and the exhumation of January 1661, Cromwell’s body was buried and reburied in several places to protect it from vengeful royalists. The stories suggest that his bodily remains are buried in London, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire or Yorkshire.[105] It continues to be questioned whether the body mutilated at Tyburn was in fact that of Oliver Cromwell.

Ironically the Cromwell vault was later used as a burial place for Charles II’s illegitimate descendants.[106] Afterwards the head changed hands several times, including the sale in 1814 to a man named Josiah Henry Wilkinson,[107][108] before eventually being buried in the grounds of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, in 1960.[109][110]

Numbered notes refer to the references included on the Wikipedia page the above paragraphs are excerted from.

[TSgt]

A Nazi is a Nazi and a Reichskonkordat is a Reichskonkordat.


You call it anti-Catholic. I call it a historical fact.

[mmichaels1970]

A Nazi is a Nazi and a Reichskonkordat is a Reichskonkordat.

That is not what you said in your first post. You said:

The Pope can even meet with Hitler and not get fired.

And then you posted a picture of somebody who was not the Pope meeting with Hitler. Probably with the intent to lead the reader to believe this was a picture of the Pope with Hitler.

If you want anybody to lend credibility to your facts then you should make sure you get them straight and not come off as somebody who is trying to mislead.

I think I can respect your opinion and would be open to debating it. But the impression you leave with your first post appears to be an attempt to mislead. And I believe it's nearly impossible to have a constructive debate with somebody with that intent.

[Campion]

By that logic Nixon was a communist for going to China and signing agreements with the Chicoms. But I guess I can’t expect much from someone who posts a picture of a Monsignor shaking Hitler’s hand and pretends it’s the Pope.

[TSgt]

Nice straw man you got there.

Nixon didn’t agree that China was a moral authority nor did he throw thousands of Jews under the bus to save his own throat.

[Claud]

Ok Captain History, you tell me which of these monstrous plans in the Concordat you find particularly objectionable:

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

You are the one playing fast and loose with history trying to make this out to be some great stamp of approval of the Nazi regime. It was an agreement *that the rights of the Church be respected in Germany*.