HERE’S AN ARTICLE THE PROCLAIMS THAT JOHN PAUL II HAS NO LIVING WILL.
The basis for the claim?
He hasn’t showed one to his doctors.
This, along with the article’s repeated snarky comments about the pope "imposing his will" on the Church, demonstrates the MSM’s cluelessness about such matters.
The fact that the pope hasn’t shown a living will or other document saying what to do if he falls into a persistent coma proves exactly nothing.
If the pope has such a document, its existence wouldn’t be made known until such time as he fell into a coma or persistent vegetative state or similar condition. Given Vatican sensibilities, it wouldn’t be seemly for knowledge of such a document to be public prior to that, in part because of the destabilizing effect it might have or would be perceived by Vaticanistas to have. If it were known to exist and the pope got sick, people would demand its release. If it was not released, a mediastorm would errupt. If it were released, people would go to town arguing about its provisions and whether they had been fulfilled or not, and another mediastorm would errupt. The only way to keep things peaceful would mean not acknowledging the document’s existence until its use was called for.
The pope would thus likely deposit it with someone he could trust–either the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith or–more likely–the Cardinal Camerlengo who will run stuff upon his death until a new pope is elected.
Upon the pope being persistently comatose or otherwise not in control of his faculties, the individual tasked with keeping the document would then produce it and begin implementation of its procedures.
Doctors would not be informed of it until that time.
I continue to say it, but the media has provided a great deal of comedy ever since he became ill.
And, correct me if I’m wrong, but hasn’t one of the criticisms of John Paul II been that he takes collegiality to an extreme?
I watched Fox News the day the Pope had surgery. Shephard Smith was talking about this “secretive church”, “veiled in secrecy”, and “operating in the shadows”. He even prefaced one of his first questions by saying that many think that the Church keeps things so secret in order to keep control and power.
I would have been nodding as a protestant a year ago.
“veiled in secrecy”?
“…the Church keeps things so secret…”?
Boy are these people clueless!!!! What secrets do they think they are missing out on? Everything that the Church has to say, or that the Church teaches, or believes, is so completely out in the open!
“…in order to keep control and power…”???
Wow. Talk about paranoid.
Or maybe I haven’t received my secret code book or my decoder ring yet. I wonder how long you have to be Catholic to get these. Is there a secret address where I can write to place my order?
Jimmy, I love the title of this post! Kind of stating the obvious, don’t you think? The real (not sarcastic) news flash would be if the MSM actually did understand the Vatican and/or the Church!
The morning after the Pope had surgery my local news station had an on-the-spot reporter in front of a Catholic church as parishoners were going in for a weekday morning Mass. The reporter was saying, “This church is holding a special Mass today to pray for the Pope…” He later had to retract what he said, clarifying that it was regular daily Mass — surprise! We celebrate Mass DAILY. MSM is in the dark about a lot of stuff.
‘thann
Funny. Our local news paper here in El Salvador published an article that said the Pope had already made his will leaving all his material posessions to the Church. The article also said that the Pope had already specified (since 1996) that no pictures of him, agonizing or dead, are to be taken (supposedly to prevent situations like in the case of Pius XII whose pictures were published by his doctor, Galeazzi Lisi).
By the way, It was my understanding that it was after the Pope´s election when he gave up -all- his earthly posessions…is this true? This also makes me wonder if the Pope “earns” a salary as do “regular” bishops?