Ok, so the current Pope isn’t THAT incapacitated, but I was wondering what happens in the unfortunate event a Pope’s prognosis is permanent, bed-ridden unconciousness. What if a young Pope was in some sort of accident that left him brain dead (but with a body that, otherwise, fuctions normally). Can they replace the spiritual leader, or would they have to wait 40+ years for him to make the final transition?
Popes have been deposed and otherwise replaced before their deaths before; I imagine the college of cardinals would figure something out.
That was kinda covered in this thread:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=98862
However, I don’t believe that that situation has come up, so I guess they will address it if and when it ever happens.
IMHO, due to the nature of the Papacy, I doubt if there ever will be a young pope; perhaps in his 50’s if you consider that young. 
And I came to this thread expecting to find that the Pope is now an avowed vegetarian! 
(I then said to myself: he’s not going to try to expand the Friday meat prohibition during Lent, is he?)
“Popes have been deposed and otherwise replaced before their deaths before.”
They have? When? Under what circumstances?
teehee… I thought that too.
And I thought the Pope had turned into a squash … or maybe a Jerusalem artichoke.
Darn.
(And how would the College of Cardinals decide things? One puff to dump him into the river, two puffs to let a vegetable take on the onerous and mentally dema … ha … deman … ha ha … demanding duties of the leadership of the only real Latin country?)
I hope he had a good Thanksgiving, the old sweet potato.
Pope Sissinius didn’t last a month and had such bad gout that he couldn’t even feed himself.
This according to http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14028a.htm
I’m guessing that there is a provision for setting up some sort of regency if the pope is incapicitated.
Hell, at one point there were 3 popes.
The only papal oustings that I am aware of were on the couple of occasions (before the establishment of the College of Cardinals and the rules for electing the pope) when opposing factions each declared their own candidates for pope with each side excommunicating the other. This occurred on a couple of occasions at the end of the Medieval era and the early Renaissance–and led to the current definition of the College of Cardinals and the rules of election.
In each of those cases, the matter was finally resolved when enough claimants had either died or resigned and a new candidate had been selected that all the parties could agree to.
In the case of new medical science keeping alive a comatose pope, the cardinals and Curia would have to get together and come up with some new rules. (It should be noted that the Catholic Church has not required the use of “extraordinary means simply to prolong life” for over 40 years, since a declaration on the subject by Pope Pius XII. A comatose patient may not be starved to death (i.e., a comatose patient must not have a feeding tube removed), but they could probably pull the plug on a brain damaged pope who was only breathing by way of a respirator.)
The College of Cardinals would come up with something, but they’d just as soon avoid the question. I remember reading an article during Paul’s tenure that he wanted to step down because of failing health - he was strongly advised against doing so because they don’t want to figure out how to deal with having a retired Pope around.