He’s not as old as the senator for West Virginia who seems fairly coherant at the ripe age of 85 but then again the senator isn’t being pushed around in a wheelchair and the pope doesn’t exactly look too healthy either (to be honest!).
So what happens when he goes senile?
Who says anyone has to know? I’d imagine that the higher church leadership (The Cardinals?) could just use him as a “figurehead,” and act as the real power behind the throne until he dies.
Of what i’ve heard of his latest new rules, thats prolly already happened 
Is there something official though?
What does the OP mean by ‘when’?
The important thing is, he’s not a woman.
Anyway, I don’t know if there’s an official policy or aught, but how often does he actually get to set policy? There’s a beurocracy involved, and that tends to be the mediating factor that allows the established order to work its way around these little problems, whether there’s an official policy or not.
When as in at the time the pope goes senile…
As in, “What happens when the president gets shot?”. The vice president takes over!
Due to the context of the question I don’t understand what you are confusing when with…
The current Pope’s body is clearly failing him, but I’ve yet to see that his mind is weakening.
As to what happens when a Pope goes senile, I don’t really know, though the situation must have come up before. There used to be a saying that “the Pope is always in perfect health, until he’s dead”. Which is to say, traditionally, the Roman Catholic Church didn’t announce that the Pope was ill, senile, or anything else. A pope who could not fulfill his duties would simply be cloistered away in the Vatican and no one would answer any questions until he died. John Paul II has been too active outside the Vatican walls for this to be feasible, and he chose to be seen with his infirmities, although even then it took years before anyone confirmed that he had Parkinson’s.
There’s nothing about the day-to-day running of the RCC that requires a healthy pope, and there’s no formal procedure for someone to take over as Vice-Pope or Regent.
surely they would just take him to Lourdes?
You mean he * isn’t?*
He’d begin to shit in the woods
Monkey Mench was trying to be funny by implying that the pope IS already senile (which he is). So, your question should have been “What happens now that the Pope is senile?”
The obligatory… , of course.
Wow - as usual, every answer in GQ, the forum for factual answers, is right on the money, eschewing editorializing in favor of a brusque Jack Webb “just the facts, ma’am,” style.
Or so it would be in my Perfect World™. I’m looking at you, Chagto.
Canon law provides that the Pontiff is the supreme human authority within the church. He has full, immediate and universal ordinary power in the Church, and he is always permitted to freely exercise this power; there is no appeal or recourse against a judgment or a decree of his.
He may resign (Can. 334 § 2) but may not be removed against his will.
That’s the official rule. As 2trew correctly points out, there is an organization in place to carry out the business of the Church, and that organization would resist and dramatic and sweeping changes or events. Catholics might add that the Holy Spirit protects against unwise innovations in church governance, even though unworthy men have certainly sat in the throne of St. Peter.
While it wasn’t a proper spit take, I did dribble coffee all over my clean white dress shirt when I read this.
Darn you, Bakhesh. Darn you to heck!
Happy
What happens when the pope goes the weasel?;j
Senator Byrd of West Virginia looks absolutely batshit lately, compared to the Pope.
“and the pope doesn’t exactly look too healthy either (to be honest!).”
Yeah, but isn’t alot of that jet lag? Ive seen people who travel a lot & that jet lag is something to deal with.
Stop yer speculatin’. Here’s the SD from experts (who don’t know anything):
From Religion and Ethics Newseekly (PBS):
And from America Press
“The Galactic Pope has just become Flux Incapacitated!”
Someone mentioned those new “rules.” According to what I read, they were just a proposal, and they haven’t even been presented to the pope. If I were a betting man, I’d bet that some especially stodgy and hide-bound old bishop was trying to slip something past the pope before he dies.