Once-taboo discussion raised with comments by German bishop

By JOHN THAVIS

Catholic News Service

A German bishop's suggestion that Pope John Paul II could one day resign has stimulated open discussion on a once taboo subject at the Vatican.

The remarks by Bishop Karl Lehmann Jan. 9 - misreported by the Italian press as a request for the pope to step down - provoked immediate controversy and a rush to defend the pope by Roman Curia officials. -

A flurry of denials and clarifications followed, with everyone, including Bishop Lehmann, agreeing that the 79-year-old pontiff was fully capable of continuing in office.

"Even though the pope appears very tired, the Holy Father is in the fullness of his mental faculties. I don't think the hypothesis of resigning has been considered, not even recently,' said Dominican Father Georges Cottier, theologian of the papal household.

Cardinal Pio Laghi, a longtime Vatican official who recently retired, said: "We have an excellent Holy Father. I think a decision like resignation cannot be suggested to the pope. It's a decision that would be his alone."

The pope appeared to offer an unintentional response to the debate when, speaking about the elusive goal of world peace, he told diplomats Jan. 10: "God never asks us anything above our capabilities, in the sense that he gives us the strength to complete what he expects of us."

But even at the Vatican, some acknowledged that Bishop Lehmann, president of the German bishops' conference, had voiced what many people have privately wondered as they watched the pope struggle through the first big holy year events, frequently looking frail and unsteady.

Bishop Lehmann said that while he thought the pope was at the "high point" of his pontificate, it was not being disloyal to talk about papal resignation as a future possibility.

Several experts pointed out that church law allows a pope to resign, and there has been at least one pope who did.

"This is not an eternal assignment. It is limited first of all by death, and then perhaps by other circumstances. If a pope, having reflected and prayed deeply, feels in conscience that he no longer has the capacity to carry out the office, he could decide to resign," said one highly placed Vatican source who asked not to be named.

Such a resignation would not show a lack of confidence in God, he said.

"God entrusts responsibilities to people who are capable of carrying them out. Even someone ill can do this. But suppose the pope were to lose his ability to speak, for example. That would raise a very delicate problem," the source said.

Modern medical advances have made it more likely that the church will sooner or later have to face such problems, he said. Pope John Paul is being treated for a nervous system disorder believed to be Parkinson's disease, a debilitating illness.

Other observers who have closely followed the pope praised his current leadership role, but believe resignation is possible at some future moment.

Vittorio Messori, an Italian who has interviewed the pope at length, said the pope could choose to withdraw in seclusion, to a Polish monastery if his health fails.

Luigi Accattoli, an Italian journalist who has written extensively about the pope, said in the newspaper Corriere della Sera that the pontiff "who has brought so many new things to the throne of Peter would also be capable of stepping down from that throne."

'One has the impression that John Paul II would not be convinced to remain for reasons of 'image' if he felt he could not continue to govern the church," he said.

Pope Paul VI, who is said to have considered and rejected the idea of retirement late in his papacy, once said that a paternal role - that of the Holy Father - cannot be resigned.

That's a point recalled by U.S. author George Weigel, who spent many hours with Pope John Paul in preparing the papal biography, Witness to Hope. He said the fact that church law makes provisions for papal retirement shows that "it's not inconceivable."

But Weigel said, "From what I've seen publicly, and at lunch with the pope a few days before Bishop Lehmann's remarks, John Paul II has the strength, the courage and the will for the job," he said.

The last pope to resign voluntarily was St. Celestine V, who stepped down in 1296 after a short reign. Reports of several other resignations in the church's early centuries have not been proven.

Canon 332 of church law stipulates that a papal resignation be made freely and "duly manifested," which is generally understood to mean in writing or in the presence of witnesses. Most experts believe a papal resignation would have to be communicated to the College of Cardinals, which elects popes. But church law makes clear that no one need accept a pope's resignation in order for it to be valid.

A sick pope can delegate much of his authority to trusted aides. But if a pope becomes incapacitated without having previously delegated responsibility, no decisions that require papal authority can be made.

PAPAL ABDICATION (from The Vatican Bank, CEC/MOTC,)

From Our Sunday Visitor's Catholic Encyclopedia, page 26, "An older term for resignation of ecclesiastical office. As such, the rules on resignation apply to abdication. If the Pope were to abdicate the papal throne (as did St. Peter Celestine), his abdication would be announced to the College of Cardinals, but not being his superior, they could not technically accept it, nor do they have power to refuse it."

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