Did Pope Francis Already Write a Resignation Letter?

Q:  In light of the Holy Father’s present illness, I found an article online which was written a few years ago.  It says that Pope Francis told an interviewer in 2013 that he had already written a resignation letter and given it to a Cardinal.  The Pope said it was meant to be used “in case of impediment for medical reasons or whatever else I don’t know, here is my resignation.”

I then looked up what you had written about a pope being removed because he was incapacitated.  You indicated that this cannot be done legally, because nobody has authority to remove the Pope.  So this seems to directly contradict what Pope Francis allegedly intended.

Can you tell me your analysis of this?  If Pope Francis wrote a letter of resignation in 2013, could it be used if he was incapacitated?  And if he wrote a resignation without the intent of resigning in 2013, could it mean that he actually did resign in 2013?  (I doubt this but just wanted your view of this.) –Maria

A:  The issue of papal resignation, or removal from office, is on the minds of many Catholics these days, because Pope Francis is currently battling pneumonia.  Since the Pope is 88 years old and is missing part of a lung, this illness is no laughing matter.  If God so wills it, we may very well be looking at a vacant papal see and a papal conclave in the not-so-distant future.

Thus this odd report from back in 2013, which Maria references in her question, is now of more immediate interest to us.  The Pope was interviewed soon after his election by the Spanish-language media, and he told them that he had already written a resignation letter—despite being in apparent good health—as a sort of “just in case” measure, if ever he became impeded from carrying out his office.  Pope Francis declared that he had given the letter to his then-Secretary of State, who has since retired.  (In answer to Maria’s final question, the Pope indicated that he intended the letter to be used not when he wrote it, but at some point in the future—so it’s quite clear that he didn’t “accidentally resign” somehow back in 2013, when the letter was written.)

Can the Pope do this?  If so, how would it work?

We already took a look at this issue back when Benedict XVI was still the reigning Pontiff: in “Can a Pope be Removed from Office?” we looked at the scenario of a Pope who became so physically or mentally debilitated that he was literally incapable of deciding to resign.  An impeded papal see is something which to date, the Catholic Church has never had to deal with, thank God!  But it is a real possibility nonetheless, at least humanly speaking; and so theologians and canonists have been discussing it in theoretical terms for many years.

In the abovementioned article, we took a look at a frustrating phrase found in canon 335.  If you’re not paying close attention, you’ll miss it altogether:

When the Roman See is vacant or entirely impeded, nothing is to be altered in the governance of the universal Church; the special laws issued for these circumstances, however, are to be observed.

Adult Catholics are certainly familiar with the concept of a vacant papal see, since we remember well that Pope Benedict resigned in early 2013, rendering his see vacant until the election of Pope Francis.  You don’t have to be a canon lawyer to appreciate that in the temporary interregnum period, when there is no Pope, nobody has authority to make any changes that are normally the prerogative of the Pope.  The canon rightly notes that the Church must observe “the special laws issued for these circumstances,” and if you study the history of papal conclaves, it has been faithful (perhaps surprisingly so!) about doing just that.

Over the years, probably based on issues that arose during a prior conclave, many Popes have rewritten (or at least tweaked) the special laws regarding what’s to be done at the death of a Pope, in order to properly elect his successor.  The current law on this subject, entitled Universi Dominici Gregis (UDG), was issued by Pope St. John Paul II in 1996; it was subsequently amended slightly by Pope Benedict XVI in 2007, and again in 2013, but apart from these relatively minor modifications UDG is still in force.  We took a detailed look at the law pertaining to conclaves in “Canon Law and the Upcoming Conclave,” and “When Will the Conclave Start? Pope Benedict’s Final Legislative Act,” both written after Benedict’s resignation in 2013.

But if you go back now and reread canon 335, it’s the phrase “or entirely impeded” that makes one pause.  If the Pope becomes mentally or physically incapacitated … there’s no way for him to voluntarily resign from his office.  That fact is enshrined in law in canon 187, which reasonably observes that anybody holding an office in the Church can resign provided that he is sui compos, a Latin phrase that is difficult to translate into English.  A person who is considered sui compos has the ability to think for himself, and make responsible choices using his own mental power.  In contrast, someone who is in a coma, or is mentally disabled, unconscious, insane, or suffering from dementia is considered non sui compos, because he is unable to rationalize what he is doing, and to take responsibility for his actions.

Clearly, then, if the Pope were unable for any reason to make a rational decision on his own, he could not make the decision to resign.  But could someone else in authority determine officially that the Pope was indeed incapacitated, and make the decision for him?

In a word, no.  Canon 1404 tells us that “the First See is judged by no one.”  Nobody, therefore, could declare that “the Pope is so mentally/physically debilitated that he can’t make sound decisions”— because that would amount to a lower authority making a judgment about the Pope who is his superior.  And as the law now stands, nobody on earth can make a judgment about the Pope … except the Pope.

That’s why, as we saw in “Can a Pope be Removed from Office?” already mentioned above, if the papal see ever becomes impeded, we are stuck—unless and until God Himself decides to intervene, either by restoring the Pope to better health, or by calling him to Himself and rendering the see vacant.

Now let’s look at the specific situation that Maria cites in her question.  Pope Francis told a journalist that he had written a resignation letter, not for the present moment but for a possible date in the future.  In the interview, the Pope said he left the letter with Cardinal Bertone, then the Secretary of State, for use if the Pope ever became incapacitated.  Would this work?  After all, it’s the Pope himself who acknowledged that his see might one day be impeded, and he was taking steps to resolve that difficulty in advance, right?

Wrong.  The unavoidable fact is that if this resignation letter were ever to be used, it would mean that somebody had made a determination that Pope Francis was too incapacitated to decide for himself.  And as we’ve just seen, the law simply does not permit this scenario!  A Cardinal—even the Secretary of State—does not have the authority to make this decision.

That logically prompts another question: can’t the Pope just amend the law, so as to enable the Secretary of State (or some other person) to make this determination?  This is the sort of hypothetical that theologians and canonists in academia enjoy musing about, and with good reason.  It’s never been done in history … but could the Pope, who is after all the Supreme Legislator, make a law permitting someone hierarchically beneath him to decide that yes, the Pope is incapacitated and thus his resignation letter takes effect right now?

Before attempting an answer, let’s not lose sight of the fact that (as has been noted many times in this space) canon law follows theology.  We Catholics believe that the Pope is the Vicar of Christ on earth, and the supreme head of the Church because Christ so ordained it.  As Our Lord said to Peter, “You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church” (Matt. 16:18).  And as was discussed at length in “Are There Any Limitations on the Power of the Pope?” the Holy Father does indeed have immense power here on earth—but he cannot contravene divine law.  If the Pope is a humble man and is willing to submit to others in earthly matters, he may have an admirably virtuous mindset; but he still has no power to put any other church official over him.  This would be restructuring the hierarchy of the Church in a way other than what Christ established.

And since we Catholics believe that God is guiding His Church, it’s pretty tough to imagine that Pope Francis would ever attempt to do such a thing.  Maybe this is the reason why the “special laws issued for these circumstances,” mentioned in canon 335 above, exist for the vacant papal see, but not for an impeded papal see.  Since the promulgation of the current Code of Canon Law in 1983, containing canon 335, no Pope has ever attempted to promulgate laws for What To Do If The Pope Becomes Incapacitated.

Consequently, it’s hard to see how the resignation letter which Pope Francis said he wrote in 2013 could ever be used!  Certainly under existing law it immediately hits the roadblocks outlined above; and any potential changes in the law, meant to eliminate those roadblocks, would still have to be in accord with Catholic theology, and its ecclesiological understanding of the role of the papacy in the Church.

Let’s remember that God is in full control!  Thus if He were to wish for some reason to render the Pope incapacitated, thus paralyzing many aspects of the Church’s operations until his death, He could do that—and if God doesn’t want it to happen, He will surely lead events to fall out differently.  It’s interesting, and intellectually stimulating, to think through various hypothetical scenarios that could arise in the Church; but it’s far more constructive to pray for the Church, and for Pope Francis, instead.

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