Four Reasons Why the Pope Shouldn’t Quit

Now that rumors of Pope John Paul II’s demise have again proved to be exaggerated, focus can shift from the health crisis to the broader questions raised by his age and weakness. The chief among them: Should he resign?

To a broad swath of opinion, it seems the most obvious step in the world. The Catholic Church is beset by a number of crises, from the sexual abuse scandals in the United States to rampant secularization in Europe and the inroads of Protestant evangelical groups in Latin America. It needs energetic leadership, which an aging and declining pope can’t provide. The Code of Canon Law, the body of law for Roman Catholicism, makes provision for papal resignation in Canon 332. Why not exercise it?

In fact, however, there is a strong case against papal resignation, premised on four arguments.

First, a resigned pope could be an agent of division in the church, with some Catholics expressing loyalty to the old pope and some to the new one. At its worst, such a situation could lead to schism. More plausibly, it could exacerbate the divisions that already fracture the global Catholic Church -- between liberals and conservatives, between the developed and developing worlds, between those who emphasize the church’s spiritual and devotional traditions and those who want an activist, politically engaged Catholicism. For a church that already wrestles with maintaining a sense of community across a welter of cultures, languages and ideologies, this is a serious risk.

Second, many observers believe that John Paul II is providing precious testimony about the inherent value of human life, from beginning to end. In a culture that worships youth, beauty and efficiency, his reminder that elderly and infirm people can provide important contributions is perhaps a valuable one.

When I was in Lourdes last summer with John Paul II, at Christianity’s most renowned healing shrine, there was a remarkable identification between him and that vast crowd of suffering people. Perhaps John Paul could still make that contribution as a sort of “goodwill ambassador” as a retired pope, but inevitably it would not quite have the same impact.

Third, the theology of the papal office is ad personam, meaning that being pope is not just a role you play, it’s who you are. It “sticks to your skin,” as one theologian I know puts it. Being the successor of Peter is more akin to being a father than being the chief executive of a multinational corporation. As Pope Paul VI said, one cannot renounce paternity.

The Catholic Church regards the pope as important principally for who he is, not what he does -- the living center of unity for a global family of faith. For him to resign because he is no longer an effective administrator would, in the eyes of some, compromise the church’s teaching about the nature of the papal office.

Fourth, Catholic reformers have long called for a weaker pope, arguing that the papacy should be more a ministry of service rather than an authoritarian center of power. Today, John Paul II obviously is weakened. Gone is the swashbuckling, triumphal figure of the 1980s; now, John Paul’s leadership is expressed largely through his suffering. Without declaring it as such, his continuing presence on the Throne of Peter is in effect an experiment in a new style of papal leadership, and it’s an open question whether it would be better for Catholicism to artificially abbreviate it.

None of this means a papal resignation is inconceivable. The Vatican’s No. 2 official, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, set off a firestorm in the Italian press this month by saying “we must have great faith in the pope. He knows what to do.” By not rejecting the concept of resignation outright, he seemed to open the door to that possibility. In an interview on CNN, Archbishop John Foley, one of the most senior Americans in the Vatican, likewise stressed that the pope himself approved the Code of Canon Law, and it allows a pope to resign. What Vatican officials seem to be doing is preparing the world if it should eventually come to resignation.

Still, there are powerful reasons to think that resignation is not the only, or even the most convincing, solution to the problems posed by a weak and aging pope. Perhaps John Paul’s determination to soldier on is not just stubbornness or ego, but an instinct about what’s in the best interests of the Catholic Church.