With no disrespect to the man or the office intended: he is screwed.
At best he’ll be a do-nothing caretaker until his death. Which is not long in coming in human lifetime terms. But may leave an organization that depends upon him and only him to do the things his role demands in what seems like eternal paralysis waiting for him to finally die.
It is past time that all big and important organizations put in mandatory retirement provisions at much younger ages. The elderly should not be trying to run the world. The world is too important for that.
On the other hand, the Roman Catholic Church certainly has considerable experience, even in recent decades, in dealing with infirm, aged pontiffs.
AIUI, while there are some decisions and actions that only the Pope himself can make (such as appointing bishops, convening councils of the bishops, administering ecclesiastical discipline, etc.), the church itself is a very slow-moving, deliberative organization. I imagine that 99% of the church’s functions can continue on for a considerable time without any input from the pope.
I hope those people who essentially twisted his arm to get him to the hospital weren’t thinking that he must be kept “alive” at all costs. Too many people do that.
If we’re looking at him in his role as leader of the Church, the Church would be run by the same bureaucracy during any interregnum while he was dead as it was when he was in critical condition in the hospital, so “alive at all costs” doesn’t matter there. And if we’re looking at him as a human being, the Church’s position is that all reasonable measures should be taken to preserve human life, but that heroic measures are not necessary, and that preserving dignity of human life is also important, and so it is permissible to, for instance, remove life support from a person in a persistent vegetative state.
I mean, the odds of their being some kind of theological emergency that only the Pope is capable of addressing is pretty low - and if there was one, it’d probably be the least of our worries.
In the unlikely event that Jesus shows up and wants an explanation, we’ll just have to hope that Theodoros II can keep him busy.
Most elderly people admitted to hospital with something like pneumonia respond to treatment and are discharged. There is no obvious reason to conclude Francis is at diminished capacity. I wish Him well.
Yeah, the Catholic Church has ample experience with an aged and inform pontiff. I’m sure they have robust procedures in place to continue whatever functions they consider critical. I see no problem with them allowing him to live or die at his natural pace, and remain the pontiff during that time.
