The Pope remained ”stable” in hospital on Thursday as his illness raised the question of what the Catholic church would do if he were to become permanently incapacitated — and reopened debate over whether popes should retire instead of reigning for life.
The Vatican announced on Thursday that the pontiff had ”rested well” and was showing a ”positive evolution” after he was taken to hospital on Tuesday night with breathing spasms brought on by flu.
His spokesperson, Joaquin Navarro-Valls, said he expected him to remain in hospital for about a week.
It was reported that the Pope had held a mass over the phone and might be well enough to give his weekly Angelus address from the window of his hospital room on Sunday.
Catholics have become used to the Pope being unable to walk and slurring his speech: he has Parkinson’s disease and knee problems. It is widely known that much Vatican business is now dealt with by his entourage.
But the prospect of the world’s one billion Catholics being led from a hospital bed for an indefinite period has raised calls for the Vatican to change its canon law, drawn up in times when medicine was basic and popes did not live so long.
Although canon law technically allows popes to abdicate, tradition has it that they do not.
The last pope who willingly resigned was Celestine V in 1294. Gregory XII reluctantly abdicated in 1415 when more than one pope was reigning at the same time.
John Paul II has always insisted he will serve for life.
On that basis, and with the help of modern medicine, he might yet continue for many years. He has already led the church for more than 25.
”The ability of modern medicine to keep the body alive while the mind is deteriorating will eventually present the church with a constitutional crisis,” wrote Father Thomas Reese, the editor of America, a weekly Jesuit magazine.
There have been unconfirmed reports that the Pope has prepared a resignation letter to be used in case he becomes incapacitated.
Other reports say that while the Vatican is unlikely to set a definitive retirement age, many cardinals are planning that when called to a future conclave they will only elect a pope who agrees in advance to retire.
In the absence of such an agreement, anyone under 70 is unlikely to be considered.
But the issue is fraught, not just because the Vatican is always reluctant to embrace change but because many ordinary Catholics strongly believe that the pontiff is chosen by God, and should only depart when God chooses. – Guardian Unlimited Â