Can The Pope Be Impeached?

Pope Benedict XVI | Flickr/<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/letdown102/62616526/">letdown102</a> (<a href="http://www.creativecommons.org">Creative Commons</a>).

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


In recent weeks, the firestorm over sexual abuse of children by Catholic clergymen has reached even the pope himself.

The New York Times reported last week that Pope Benedict XVI was copied on a memo explaining that a priest who abused children would be reassigned to work with kids. The priest later abused again, and while the Vatican denies that the pope had any knowledge of the situation, the pontiff has come in for a barrage of criticism. Could the pope be impeached?

No. There’s no procedure in church law that allows for a pope to be impeached. It’s an open-and-shut case, Watson.

The pope has what is probably the world’s safest job. It’s essentially impossible to dislodge him without his consent. Even if he’s sick or otherwise incapacitated, he’s still the pope until he says otherwise. Theoretically, a pope can resign—and some of Benedict’s critics have urged him to do so. But it’s unlikely that this will happen. Canon law requires that any resignation be “freely made and properly manifested.” The last pope to step down from the post was Gregory XII, in 1415.

(The Catholic Encyclopedia notes that “it is well known that Pope Pius VII (1800-23), before setting out for Paris to crown Napoleon in 1804, had signed an abdication of the papal throne to take effect in case he were imprisoned in France.”)

Even if there were an impeachment procedure, it’s unlikely that it would ever be invoked. The institutional church’s response to the current media onslaught has been to rally around the pope. Prominent bishops are embracing and praising Benedict, not distancing themselves from him. Instead of responding to the issues raised by the Times‘ report, Benedict has so far refused to address it. Meanwhile, conservative Catholics and the Vatican’s official newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, have argued that the Times series is part of a media vendetta against the pope. The media are acting “with the clear and ignoble intent of trying to strike Benedict and his closest collaborators at any cost,” the paper wrote.

The very idea of impeaching the pope is somewhat inconsistent with Catholic theology. According to the church, the pope is the “Vicar of Christ” on earth, the successor of Saint Peter. Doctrine does not say the pope is always infallible (that’s a common misconception)—but he’s rarely, if ever, challenged by other important members of the Catholic hierarchy. Sorry, impeachment fans: This one’s a non-starter.

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do things differently in the aftermath of a political crisis: Watergate. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after, and go deep on, stories others don’t. And we’re a nonprofit newsroom because we knew corporations and billionaires would never fund the journalism we do. Our reporting makes a difference in policies and people’s lives changed.

And we need your support like never before to vigorously fight back against the existential threats American democracy and journalism face. We’re running behind our online fundraising targets and urgently need all hands on deck right now. We can’t afford to come up short—we have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

Please help with a donation today if you can—even just a few bucks helps. Not ready to donate but interested in our work? Sign up for our Daily newsletter to stay well-informed—and see what makes our people-powered, not profit-driven, journalism special.

payment methods

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do things differently in the aftermath of a political crisis: Watergate. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after, and go deep on, stories others don’t. And we’re a nonprofit newsroom because we knew corporations and billionaires would never fund the journalism we do. Our reporting makes a difference in policies and people’s lives changed.

And we need your support like never before to vigorously fight back against the existential threats American democracy and journalism face. We’re running behind our online fundraising targets and urgently need all hands on deck right now. We can’t afford to come up short—we have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

Please help with a donation today if you can—even just a few bucks helps. Not ready to donate but interested in our work? Sign up for our Daily newsletter to stay well-informed—and see what makes our people-powered, not profit-driven, journalism special.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate