Is there any method of removing the Pope from office?

[jasonh300]

@Morbo

<1> Office Logo | Options | Proofing | Autocorrect, enable “Replace text as you type” - Replace: Pope With: ALT+0160

<2> Insert | ClipArt | Organize Clips… | Search for “pope” - right-click on"Benedict XVI", choose “Delete from Clip Organizer”

WTF?

[xash]

@Morbo

<1> Office Logo | Options | Proofing | Autocorrect, enable “Replace text as you type” - Replace: Pope With: ALT+0160

<2> Insert | ClipArt | Organize Clips… | Search for “pope” - right-click on"Benedict XVI", choose “Delete from Clip Organizer”

I would like to subscribe to your religion

[Randy_Seltzer]

@jasonh300

@Morbo

<1> Office Logo | Options | Proofing | Autocorrect, enable “Replace text as you type” - Replace: Pope With: ALT+0160

<2> Insert | ClipArt | Organize Clips… | Search for “pope” - right-click on"Benedict XVI", choose “Delete from Clip Organizer”

WTF?

It’s a play on the thread title. Instructions on how to remove the word “Pope” and the picture of the current Pope from Microsoft Office software. Apologies to the frog.

[Malleus_Incus_Stapes]

@Randy_Seltzer

Yes. Here is a list of the Popes so removed:

John XII (955-964): Suffered a stroke while with a mistress or murdered by an outraged husband

[url=http://media.isnet.org/kristen/Ensiklopedia/AssassinatedPontiffs.html]

According to Wikipedia, John lived quite an interesting life.

Pope John XII (955–963) (deposed by Conclave) was said to have turned the Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano into a brothel and was accused of adultery, fornication, and incest (Source: Patrologia Latina).[27] The monk chronicler Benedict of Soracte noted in his volume XXXVII that he “liked to have a collection of women”. According to Liutprand of Cremona in his Antapodosis[28], “they testified about his adultery, which they did not see with their own eyes, but nonetheless knew with certainty: he had fornicated with the widow of Rainier, with Stephana his father’s concubine, with the widow Anna, and with his own niece, and he made the sacred palace into a whorehouse.” According to The Oxford Dictionary of Popes, John XII was “a Christian Caligula whose crimes were rendered particularly horrific by the office he held”.[29]He was killed by a jealous husband while in the act of committing adultery with the man’s wife.[30][31][32][33] (See also Saeculum obscurum)

And that was just his sexual misbehaviors.

[Giles]

Apparently, Pope John XII was one of the youngest popes, having been chosen at the age of 18, and he died aged about 27.

[Kent_Clark]

@Markxxx

Although this example does seem unlikely, it does spark another question in my mind. What if the pope goes insane? Or like John Paul II has a condition which causes his mind to deteriorate to the point where he cannot function correctly anymore?

Obviously, there aren’t going to be a lot of reliable cites I can provide, but the traditional answer has been to pull a Woodrow Wilson, i.e., his staff limits appearances to carefully selected photo-ops, he only gets to sign the most routine documents, etc. Meanwhile, the bureaucracy continues.

It’s probably no coincidence that between the serious illness of Pope Pius XII in 1954 and his death in 1958, he named no new cardinals and several church offices remained vacant.

[tacoloco]

@Polycarp

If a pope and the antipope of the same name should encouter each other, would thety mutually annihilate each other in a burst of energy?

Sounds like the plot of a Dan Brown novel.

[NDP]

Here’s a recent article in Slate about whether a pope can be removed from office. Short answer: no. A pope can resign and a number have done so. However, those that did are mostly not viewed very favorably for doing so. (For example, in the “Inferno,” Dante placed Pope Celestine V in Hell’s vestibule for wimping out and quitting.)

[dhkendall]

@Jophiel

Of course, organizational bodies being what they are, I wouldn’t put it past the lower ranking officials to find a way of dealing with a mass murdering, slave trading, drug lord Pope or something.

Pope Diddy!

(That explains the elaborate vestments … )

@smiling_bandit

Well, there’s doctrine, and then there’s sense and process. The Pope has a great deal of power over the former, but not the latter. And even then, there’s a whole staff of people and the fact that any plausible papal candidate is basically subject to a more brutal process of scrutiny than any politician you’ll ever meet. Everybody knows what he thinks, because there’s a very small circle of elite theologians and bishops who will practically be up for popehood.

I think part of the challenge here is that the Pope is invariably older than … well, fill in your own punchline. Anyways, the point is that he’s more susptible to senitlity and other things that most other politicians aren’t. That should be a concern for the Church I would think.

And with all these posts about such-and-such a pope that was offed 1000 years or so ago, I don’t think they’re relevant to the discussion. Pre, say, 15th century Popes is quite different from the modern Church. The OP seems to be asking about present day.

That being said, the one thing peopel could always do is splinter and form a new church. I think it was on the Dope that I first learned about Mel Gibson’s dad who says that John 23 and all the popes after him are heretics and not true representatives of the Church because of Vatican II, he’s formed his own “true Catholic church” in protest.

[Really_Not_All_That_Bright]

@Morbo

<1> Office Logo | Options | Proofing | Autocorrect, enable “Replace text as you type” - Replace: Pope With: ALT+0160

<2> Insert | ClipArt | Organize Clips… | Search for “pope” - right-click on"Benedict XVI", choose “Delete from Clip Organizer”

Brilliant.

[Mr.Moto]

@Markxxx

Although this example does seem unlikely, it does spark another question in my mind. What if the pope goes insane? Or like John Paul II has a condition which causes his mind to deteriorate to the point where he cannot function correctly anymore?

What condition would that be? He had Parkinson’s - this has no effect on cognition.

[Really_Not_All_That_Bright]

@Mr.Moto

What condition would that be? He had Parkinson’s - this has no effect on cognition.

Not true at all. It just doesn’t always have an effect on cognition.

[md2000]

Yeah, if he went senile, they’d just keep him locked up sedated and or medicated. All perfectly legal, since the Vatican is a separate country.

The problem I suppose is longevity. In the “good old days” once a person started to go downhill, they died. Today, with the no-holds-barred treatments for infections, pneumonia, and anything else, a person with top notch health care could last much longer, even if their mind does not.

[Mr.Moto]

@Really_Not_All_That_Bright

Not true at all. It just doesn’t always have an effect on cognition.

First off, your link isn’t a particular good one - it is subscriber-only. But your overall point is true in the general.

Was Pope John Paul II cognitively impaired by Parkinson’s? I think the evidence is against it.

[SteveG1]

@tacoloco

Sounds like the plot of a Dan Brown novel.

Maybe we should borrow the Hardon Collider and conduct an experiment.

I know it’s mis-spelled, it’s just funnier that way.

[History_Geek]

@Captain_Amazing

There were two Borgia popes…Callixtus III and Alexander VI. I don’t believe that either were assassinated, though.

Huh. Thanks. Maybe I’m conflating Borgia popes with the Avignon popes… in numbers at least, if not poisonings.

I’d also like to say that sorting out the Johns is easy - the triangle-shaped figure is for ladies, the other is for fellas.

And John XII is now my favorite pope.

[akennett]

@tacoloco

Sounds like the plot of a Dan Brown novel.

Dan Brown novels have plots? Who knew?!

[Cicero]

@Captain_Amazing

If you think they’re bad, try figuring out the Johns.

Pretty difficult shitting in buckets.

[Really_Not_All_That_Bright]

@Mr.Moto

First off, your link isn’t a particular good one - it is subscriber-only. But your overall point is true in the general.

Weird. I found it by googling. It’s the first hit for “Parkinson’s cognition” (without quotes).

[Alan_Smithee]

Wasn’t there a science fiction story in which the papacy had been functionally vacant for decades or centuries, as medical science had progressed to the point at which life - but not consciousness - could be prolonged indefinitely (and so the current Pope had been more-or-less brain dead for a very long time)?