Pope to resign / Meet the New Pope, Same as the Old Pope

Apparently effective 2/28/2013.

I'm not Catholic, so it's not my concern, but I'm pretty surprised he's not making it effective after Easter. Who is going to preside over those activities now? Just seems weird to me that he's not doing it a month later. Easter is a big deal to Proddies like me, and my understanding is that it's even a bigger deal to the mackerel snappers.

It is a big deal to us Papists and pretty much all Christians (or so I thought). The Super Bowl, Game 7 of the World Series & W.C. Final all rolled into one.

Now we can finally get a black or Latino pope to shake the cobwebs from the Church.

DC United went to Rome to see the Pope!

The next Pope won't want to see you either, D.C. United.

— Nicholas Fedora (@Johnny_Arson) February 11, 2013

He claims because of health and desire to see family

odds there is a scandal buried in here?

1. PED - taking the juice to get pumped up for sermon's in st peters square
2. Diddling -- more priestly diddlers are about to come to light
3. He has a hand in fixing Serie A games to try and help AS Roma
4. He is coming out of the closet as Hermann Goerings former lover or something
5. ?

I think he got an offer from Penn State.

I had my students to pay some attention to the funeral proceedings for JPII (we were in Pittsburgh on a field trip while it was happening). This somewhat practicing Protestant found the whole series of events absolutely fascinating.

You saw how well that worked out for Chris Dorner. Not gonna happen, even from someone at the top. My guess is, you don't even get a shot at the title without having proven yourself an unswayable company man first.

That is the elephant in the room. ABC was discussing this this morning. The most dedicated and fastest growing are southern hemisphere (and the US church is basically the red-headed stepchild of the church). Will the old white guys in Italy allow it?

I hear the Cardinal "Electoral college" has a significant Italian membership and they want an Italian Pope.


An African Pope would probably be the best for expanding the brand.

So I hope they pick some old Italian pervert.

An Afro-Latino from Brazil or the Caribbean to really mess up their head in Rome

I still he think he was one of our best defenders and his red card against Italy was bullshit.

Problem solved. And it will be fun to watch.

Berlusconi ?

He's trying to get the new pope elected before Holy Week/Easter.

Unfortunately, my favorite candidate has just aged out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Arinze
"On 1 November 2012 Cardinal Arinze lost his eligibly to participate and vote in any future conclaves occurring as the result of any period of sede vacante."

Edit: Perhaps I posted too soon; he may still be eligible, even if he's been disenfranchised!
Looks like the Irish & Canadians favor a Quebecois!
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013/02/11/pope-bookies.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Ouellet
"Ouellet is fluent in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and German. He is known for his missionary work in South America.

Is the election process the same with it being a resignation? Or is there the ability to place a hand-picked successor?

How about Rick Santorum?
edit: Never mind, he's married.

Wow...can it happen that fast? I didn't realize that. If it can then it makes much more sense.

That's what it will be. Someone who won't look too closely into the skeletons they've got rattling around the cupboards.

Turkey's don't often vote for Christmas, do they.

I'd certainly like to see some diversity in the Church hierarchy, but from what I understand the priests from Africa and South America are often more conservative than their European and American counterparts. I'd hate to have the Church go backwards and undermine Vatican II just for the appearance of modernizing.

F'in' wonderful. The Catholic Church can get a new Pope quicker than the Red Bulls found a replacement for Hans Backe.

Nah,it still doesn't.

Easter's the Super Bowl, Lent's the playoff's.

This is JK qualifying the US for 2014,then resigning.

He's either very sick or a very big shoe is about toi drop.

How would undermining Vatican II give it the appearance of modernizing?



Anyway, I'd love for this resignation to be related to his past record of covering up child rape or perhaps the rumors about him and his good-looking assistant. But I suspect it really is about his health. I seem to recall that when he was initially elected, there were lots of comments about his age and thus would have a relatively short tenure. I imagine that JPII should have resigned a decade before he died.

Sorry, I wasn't clear. Electing a pope from Africa or South America might give the appearance of modernizing.

Interesting point, the Pope resigns, who accepted his resignation?