(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Pope Francis remains hospitalized in critical condition with a complex lung infection, leading to many questions. A local expert is offering answers to a few questions.
“One of the worrying things is the question of what will happen if the Pope is incapacitated but doesn't die,” said Bill Cavanaugh, who is a professor of Catholic studies at DePaul University.
“The Vatican really doesn't have a protocol for that kind of circumstance.”
Unlike the presidency, there is no vice pope, if the Pope is alive but cannot work.
“There is canon law about what happens if a bishop becomes incapacitated, but there isn't one for the Pope, who's the Bishop of Rome. There's just one canon that says that when the Holy See is vacant or entirely impeded nothing can be altered in the governance structure of the church.”
However, determining that is not cut and dry.
“There's no definition of when the Pope is regarded as entirely impeded, and there's really no protocol for what happens under those circumstances.”
Catholic Church officials say one possibility is that the College of Cardinals would name a commission to govern with periodic medical checks to determine the status of the Pope.
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