Pope Francis talks on the phone during his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican in mid-May. During the period between the end of one pontificate and the election of a new pope the camerlengo, or chamberlain, runs the administration and finances of the Holy See, but under canon law Pope Francis was still pope, fully in charge of running the Vatican and the 1.3-billion-strong Catholic Church, even while unconscious and undergoing surgery Wednesday, June…
June 9, 2023
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Papal power not affected by pope's surgery
What happens to papal power when a pope is unconscious? Nothing
Pope Francis' surgery to repair a hernia in his abdominal wall has raised a question about what happens to papal power when Francis is unconscious or unable to lead the church. The answer: nothing. While Vatican has norms governing the transfer of power when popes resign or die, none of those norms apply to a sick or hospitalized pope. A group of canonists have recently set out to fill that legislative loophole.