Karl Keating speculates about a possible retirement by Pope Francis:
Go here to read the rest. Quien sabe? If Pope Francis decides to retire, PopeWatch suspects it will be a matter of impulse with him blurting it out during an interview. Pope Francis is obviously a man who lives very much from moment to moment with few long term plans. If he decides that he cannot accomplish what he wishes to as Pope, it is easy to imagine him doing a snap retirement announcement. The more intriguing question is what would happen if he were to announce his retirement and then rescind it a few days later.
Somewhere in all this “Francis may retire” confusion, a little voice in the back of my head keeps asking, “How many retired popes can fit on the head of a pin?”
We may only hope and pray that this chastisement will pass away. Then what?
I’d put the odds of him retiring at less than 1%.
Until the 19th century, most popes were remarkably reticent.
A good example is Benedict XIV (Prospero Lambertini). He was probably the greatest canon lawyer to occupy the Chair of St Peter (his only rival is Innocent IV). Once, he was chatting to an old friend, a professor of law at Bologna, who put to him a long-disputed point of canon law. Benedict excused himself, observing that it would not be right for him to venture an opinion on a question that might one day come before him judicially.
For the same reason, most of the popes from Sixtus V to Pio Nono, refused to discuss controversial points of theology, except in their formal judgments, in which they tended to confine to the condemnation of erroneous propositions; even then, they refrained from stating their reasons.
He has two and half more years left of the five year plan to ” reform” the Church get it back on track. Karl Keating could be on to something. Pope Francis could be speeding up the process, examples “FamilySynod” and the man made climate change encyclical Laudato Si in preparation for the Paris UN conference in December of this year. His recent visit to South America and upcoming visit to Cuba and the UN here in the United States are pretty significant signs.
Cardinal Mc Carrick’s influential Italian visitor said it is a five year plan if Cardinal Bergoglio gets elected to the papacy. Cardinal Mc Carrick said this at Villanova University starts about 18 minutes into his speech on Pope Francis. Don’t believe me, watch what he says.
http://youtu.be/b3iaBLqt8vg
Dale, I don’t know if I would even go that high on the percentage.