Recent revelations about Pope Benedict XVI's conduct regarding a German priest who had molested numerous young boys have prompted some critics to call for the pope's resignation.In 1980, Benedict, then Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger, "was told that the priest in question had raped an eleven-year-old boy by forcing him to perform oral sex on him," The Atlantic's Andrew Sullivan writes (italics his).
"He did not report the priest to the civil authorities, he merely sent the priest to therapy, the priest was subsequently convicted of child abuse, but after his prison sentence was allowed to continue in the priesthood until the past week."
"So when will this pope resign?" Sullivan asks.
There's been no indication that Benedict is thinking of doing so, and he's protected church officials who abetted child abuse in the past. Still, the controversy has sparked questions about just how the pope would step down if he wanted to.
Can the pope, who Roman Catholics believe is God's vessel on earth, resign?
Yes. Several popes have.
Pope Pontian (230-235) was the first. Emperor Maximinus Thrax targeted Christian leaders and sent Pontian into exile to the mines of Sardinia. Pontian resigned to allow the election of a new pope and died in exile.
Pope Silverius (536-537) abdicated twice. He "was deposed and exiled by Empress Theodora of Constantinople, brought back by Emperor Justinian to stand trial, convicted, and forced by his successor Pope Vigilius to abdicate again," Austin Cline writes for About.com. "He starved to death on an island in the Gulf of Gaeta."
Benedict IX served three times as pope in the 11th century, and he was both ejected and resigned before ultimately being excommunicated. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, he was "a disgrace to the Chair of Peter."
Two additional popes have resigned: Celestine V (1294), who stepped down rather than accept the secular authority of Sicily's Charles II, and Gregory XII (1406-1417), who resigned to prevent a church schism.
Celestine created the procedural process for a pope's resignation, which is laid out in the 1963 Code of Canon Law: "If it should so happen that the Roman Pontiff resigns his office, it is required for validity that he makes the resignation freely and that it be duly manifested, but not that it be accepted by anyone."
That may be cryptic to laymen, but within the church the meaning is clear. Were a secular power to force the pope to resign, it wouldn't be recognized by the church.
And should a pope freely choose to resign, it's no one else's prerogative to decline the resignation.
Presumably, he'd notify the College of Cardinals, who would then elect a new pope -- as they do each time a pope dies.
(A pope can't be fired and also enjoys diplomatic immunity, as Christopher Beam explains in Slate.)
But leave it to a secular outlet to quantify the odds that Pope Benedict XVI will step down.
Online bookmaker PaddyPower.com recently shortened the odds on a papal resignation from 12-1 to 3-1.
But given church history -- it's been nearly 600 years since a pope resigned -- even 12-1 odds seem a stretch.
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