Pope Benedict XVI, the leader of more than one billion Catholics worldwide, announced his resignation on February 11th due to advanced age, which he says is keeping him from effectively performing the physical and spiritual duties of leading the church. The Pope’s resignation will take place today, February 28th, making Benedict XVI the first Pope to resign in more than 600 years. Due to the abnormality of the situation the role will not be filled immediately. Cardinals from all over the world will flock to Rome to research the Church teachings on elections of a new Pope in the instance of the previous Pope’s resignation. During the spiritual, “Year of Faith,” this announcement has worried some over the future of the Catholic Church, but the Vatican promises that a new Pope will be elected before the celebration of Easter at the end of March.
The now former Pope, held very traditional views on issues such as contraception, women as priests, and homosexuality and some are hoping that the next man in line will be more open on these issues. The likelihood of this is slim though, because these teachings have consistently been part of the Catholic Church’s history and their reasoning is backed through interpretation of Biblical text. Yet, if anyone would be able to make significant changes on the Church’s stance on these issues it would be the Pope. This is because Catholics believe that he is in direct communication with God.
There is much speculation over which Cardinals are in the running to become the next pontiff, with an American, Cardinal Timothy Dolan from New York as a major contender. If he were elected it would make him the first American to ever hold the position. Historically, the majority of Pope’s have been from Western European countries, but in recent years the number of Catholics, and religion in general, among the younger demographic has declined significantly in that region. In contrast, Catholicism has been on the rise in both South America and Africa, leading some to predict the next Pope will come from one of those continents. The two most popular candidates from South America are Cardinal Oscar Maradiaga of Honduras and Cardinal Jorge Bergoglia of Argentina. Representing Africa, there has been a lot of chatter about Cardinal Peter Turkson from Ghana, who if chosen would become the first ever black Pope.
Christina Matthews, a junior at George Mason, who is actively involved in the Catholic community on campus commented, “It should be more about his faith than where he is from.” Regardless of speculation and lobbying, once the 117 members of the College of Cardinals come together in the Sistine Chapel for the Papal Conclave, the outside world will have no knowledge of proceedings until white smoke is emitted, signaling that a new leader of the Church has been chosen. Until then the rest of the world is left to pray, argue, postulate, or whatever else they may choose to do over the upcoming election of one of the world’s most powerful leaders.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/02/22/pope-leaks-fallout/1938321/