Benedict XVI’s death ushers in media speculation on what Pope Francis can (or will) do next — GetReligion
One of my five things to watch for in 2023 included media speculation over Pope Francis’ health and speculation over his possible retirement.
Within three days of that post — and prompted by the death on Dec. 31 of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI at the age of 95 — speculation increased once again.
This is what I wrote in that Dec. 28 post:
The pope has often praised the decision of his predecessor, now Pope-Emeritus Benedict XVI, to resign because he felt unable to carry the duties of the papacy due to his advanced age.
In 2013, Benedict, who currently lives in a monastery at the Vatican and is seldom seen, became the first pontiff to resign in 600 years, paving the way for Francis’ election. Now his health appears to be failing.
Will there be a new conclave in 2023? There’s no way to know that now. One thing, however, is certain. Speculation will only mount with each passing day. Pope Francis isn’t getting younger.
The election of a new pope is a story journalists love to report. It’s something like a cross between a presidential election and a royal wedding. The bottom line: Journalists see it as a political horse race.
Speculation will certainly mount. Journalists love elections.
Much of the speculation over what Benedict’s death means for Francis, however, cast a shadow over what should have been stories around the legacy of former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. Instead, the news coverage quickly shifted to “what happens next” — not an unusual journalism strategy in order to have political-style coverage that looks ahead rather than at the past — and whether Francis would someday step down.
Francis has left the door open to that possibility, but it’s really a guess as to what will happen. Much of the journalism from the week after Benedict died did a very good job looking at what the Vatican is doing and the protocols they are studying in order to make Francis’ retirement — or that of any future pontiff — less shocking than when Benedict did so in Febriuary 2013.
In fact, we are nearing the 10th anniversary of that announcement, something that will certainly spur more stories about this pontiff’s future.
In the meantime, there was plenty of news coverage around what Francis can, or will, do next. This is how Reuters reported on it.
The death on Saturday of Benedict, who in 2013 became the first pontiff in 600 years to step down instead of reigning for life, should make any decision to step down easier on Francis and the Church, which has struggled enough with having “two popes”, let alone three – two retired and one reigning.
It could also prompt the current pontiff to review what happens to future popes who decide to shuffle away from office because of old age rather than holding on until they die.
Francis is now 86, one year older than Benedict was when he retired. Despite needing a cane and a wheelchair, he shows no sign of slowing down. Trips are planned for Africa this month and Portugal in August.
He has made it clear that he would not hesitate to step down someday if his mental or physical health impeded him from leading the 1.3 billion-member Church.
The news story by longtime Reuters correspondent Philip Pullella, one of the best reporters in the Vatican press corps, also detailed what could happen should Francis choose to retire. This is what he reported:
Now that longer life spans have made papal resignations no longer unthinkable, there have been repeated calls from Church leaders to regulate the role of former pontiffs, in part because of the confusion stemming wrought by two men wearing white living in the Vatican.
Francis told a Spanish newspaper last month that he did not intend to define the juridical status of popes emeritus, although he had previously indicated privately that a Vatican department could script such rules.
Australian Cardinal George Pell, a conservative who was close to Benedict, has written that while a retired pontiff could retain the title of “pope emeritus”, he should return to being a cardinal, and be known as “Cardinal (surname), Pope Emeritus”.
Pell also said a former pontiff should not wear white, as Benedict did, telling Reuters in a 2020 interview that it was important for Catholics to be clear that “there is only one pope”.
Academics and canon lawyers at Italy’s Bologna University who have studied the issue say the Church cannot risk even the appearance of having “two heads or two kings” and have proposed a set of rules.
They say a former pope should not return to being a cardinal, as Pell proposes, but be called “Bishop Emeritus of Rome”. Francis told Reuters in July that is precisely what he would want to be called.
Like Reuters, the Associated Press also delved into Francis’ future.
This is what the AP reported, asking, and attempting to answer, several key questions:
Will Francis issue new protocols to regulate the office of a retired pope, after Benedict largely winged it on the fly? Will he feel more free to consider his own retirement, now that the main impediment to resignation — having two emeritus popes at the same time — has been removed? How does a reigning pope celebrate the funeral of a retired one?
“I think that his death will open problems, not close problems,” said Massimo Franco, the author of “The Monastery,” a book about Benedict’s revolutionary retirement.
According to preliminary information released by the Vatican, Benedict’s funeral … in St. Peter’s Square seems designed to be low-key, in keeping with his wishes for “simplicity” but also making clear that his status as an emeritus does not merit a pomp-filled papal sendoff.
The AP also mentioned the war within the church between traditionalists and progressives, arguing that “throughout Benedict’s 10-year retirement, many traditionalists continued to consider Benedict a point of reference, and some even refused to respect the legitimacy of Francis as pope.”
This is what the AP also reported:
“I am convinced that the most appropriate ways will be found so as not to engender confusion in the people of God, even though this doesn’t seem to me to be the right time for proclamations and clarifications,” Geraldina Boni, a professor of canon law at the University of Bologna, said.
Thanks to Benedict’s “meekness and discretion,” and Francis’ “strong and affable temperament,” any possible rivalry was avoided, she said. But that may not be case in the future.
The work to clarify how things would work the next time there is both a sitting and a retired pope has already started. A team of canon lawyers launched a crowd-sourcing initiative in 2021 to craft a new church law to govern how a retired pope lives out his final years.
The project, explained at progettocanonicosederomana.com, includes proposals on everything from his title to his dress, pension and activities to make sure they “don’t interfere directly or indirectly” with his successor’s governance.
The website mentioned above is in Italian. It also features a link in English. It states the following:
By working together through digital means and as already announced by Prof. Geraldina Boni in her essay Una proposta di legge, frutto della collaborazione della scienza canonistica, sulla sede romana totalmente impedita e la rinuncia del papa, a group of Canon law scholars from different countries has prepared two different law proposals: the first one concerns the regulation of the Roman See when it is entirely impeded because of external circumstances or the Roman Pontiff’s temporary or permanent inhabilitas; the second one regards the relevant issues pertaining to the legal status of the Bishop of Rome who resigned his office.
This virtual space is meant to be the place where what was developed is brought to the attention of the Canon law scholarship from all over the world: the purpose is to enhance and improve the law proposals through the suggestions received, in order to present them, in the end, for the consideration of the Church’s legislator.
The website also features a link to this Rome Reports video. Rome Reports describes itself as a “private and independent international TV news agency based in Rome, Italy, specializing in covering the Pope and the Vatican.” You can check out the video below:
