On the Mind of the Pope

By Fr. James
V. Schall, S.J. | Catholic World Report blog


It
so happens that the Holy Father, who is six months older than Schall,
announced his retirement about six months after Schall announced his.
As far as we know, no causal connection can be established, though
several of my friends suspect collusion. In fact, the pope’s
intentions to retire have been hinted at all along by his attention
to previously resigned popes. His given reasons are pretty much the
same ones that I use—one grows weaker with age; no one wants to
leave an institution in emergency situations.




When Benedict first
announced his resignation, I assumed that he would return to some
appropriately quiet convent in Germany for his last years, perhaps
with his priest brother. Or he might go to the Villa Helios, run by
some German nuns on the Isle of Capri, at which the German Jesuits at
the Gregorian University in Rome liked to stay when I was there. On
second thought, Benedict is also an historian. Any reader of Tacitus
would know about the unsettling residence of the Emperors Tiberius
and Caligula on Capri. Too much unwelcome symbolism would be seen in
such a move. Evidently Benedict will stay in the Vatican.



The
mechanism for the election of a successor to Benedict is now in
place. My chances of accurately picking the new pope are about the
same as my chances of picking the winner of the NCAA basketball
tournament in March or the winner of the Kentucky Derby in May. We
presume that something more is at work in the selection of a new pope
than pure luck.




Since at least Pius
IX in the 1800s, the Catholic Church has had at its helm a series of
rather outstanding men. The last two popes certainly have been
extraordinary, almost as if they were “chosen” by powers beyond
the capacities of the men who selected them. No political institution
with its “democratic” or hereditary processes for selecting
presidents and leaders can match that record over time.
Continue reading on the CWR blog.