Resignation of a Pope from His Office
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15633/acan.603Keywords:
pope, Roman Pontiff, resignation, conclave Catholic ChurchAbstract
Resignation of the Pope Benedict XVI announced on 11ht Feb. 2013 was for many a huge astonishment, because in the history of the Church one can find not so many decisions like this one, and from the last one passed more than 600 years. For canonists the act is a novelty only de facto but not de iure, because the article about resignation of the pope from his office has existed in the canonical legal order since 1299.
The paper includes the interpretation of can. 332 § 2 of the Code of Canon Law 1983 that regulates resignation of the Roman Pontiff from His Office. There are presented and analyzed historical circumstances of such norm, causes of such step, conditions required for validity of resignation (freedom of decision and proper announcement), constitutive character of such resignation and its irrevocability and the status of pope-emeritus in the Church.
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Copyright (c) 2013 Piotr Majer
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