WI: Pope Benedict XVI never abdicates?

Would he die? How would this impact the Catholic Chuch?
Of course he would die, that's how this works. It wouldn't impact the church at all, except for the mourning. The pope dying isn't a flaw in the system, it's a feature.
Frankly the abdicating was a lot more disruptive than him dying.
 

Md139115

Banned
Of course he would die, that's how this works. It wouldn't impact the church at all, except for the mourning. The pope dying isn't a flaw in the system, it's a feature.
Frankly the abdicating was a lot more disruptive than him dying.

I think he was asking if he would die between then and now. He is still alive.
 
I think he was asking if he would die between then and now. He is still alive.
It would be quite a trip if he outlived his successor. Or maybe a few of them.
'Popes come and go, but Benedict is forever!'

I got too hung up on the dying part of the question, because it would certainly influence the Catholic Church. Benedict is a lot more conservative than his holiness.* Him staying at the wheel while the (western) world becomes more and more liberal would have consequences.

*Not really in substance or style, but very much in perception. And in this day and age, perception is everything.
 
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Would he have died by now, if that is what you mean, quite possibly. Being pope is one of the most stressful jobs one could have and it certainly would have done his health any good. That said I don't see him still being alive or dying in office as being that different from each other. The biggest difference would be the media portrayal of the pope, and Church. They didn't like Benedict XVI, which could be a result of not being able to understand the terminology he would use. Contrary to popular belief, Francis has really changed anything. A few things such as talks about female deacons (deacons are different than priests) were already talked about before he was pope, he just continued the work that was already done. The biggest difference is Francis is more willing to address the media directly and talk off-script leading to people taking what he says out of context more often.
 
Would he have died by now, if that is what you mean, quite possibly. Being pope is one of the most stressful jobs one could have and it certainly would have done his health any good. That said I don't see him still being alive or dying in office as being that different from each other. The biggest difference would be the media portrayal of the pope, and Church. They didn't like Benedict XVI, which could be a result of not being able to understand the terminology he would use. Contrary to popular belief, Francis has really changed anything. A few things such as talks about female deacons (deacons are different than priests) were already talked about before he was pope, he just continued the work that was already done. The biggest difference is Francis is more willing to address the media directly and talk off-script leading to people taking what he says out of context more often.

He's also a clean pair of hands. Although Benedict was the one to bring the wrath of God down on the child abusers, he was still badly contaminated by the fact he'd been near the top of the hierarchy during the cover up. There is no evidence either he or JPII had anything to do with that and he did work very hard to fix the mess but since JPII hadn't done much after the mess truly exploded with the Front line article in early '02 (due in part to believing the mess was a repeat of the frame ups he faced in Poland under communism and likely his failing health) well guilt by association. The problem in the end though is that Benedict (like every pope at least since the fall of the Papal states) is a good man but (unlike most) he's also a right jerk at times who spent his career as the papal enforcer and only really got the top job as a reward for all his work over the years. At the time he was expected to have a short papacy which would have allowed time to figure out where the church wanted to go after the JPII era and also how to heal the wounds from the abuse scandal and (to an extent) the Traditionalist/reformer split that came about in the aftermath of Vatican II.

If he'd died in 2010 or so and Francis or someone like him had taken over then he'd be remembered as a safe pair of hands, a career backroom boy who was a moderately successful pope and would likely be remembered with a whispered "Well at least it wasn't for long." Instead he stayed alive and his extreme conservationism and traditionalism (including bringing back the extravagant papal robes at a time when the crash was imminent), started hacking people off while his leadership style made him unpopular as well. Francis might not be the angel from heaven some see him as but he is approachable, likable and practices what he preaches, and he's also seen as a fresh start and a way to draw a line under the decade of hell the church had after the abuse scandal came to light. He's also quite humble, lives by the vow of poverty and has shown an ability to at least engage with the modern world. He is somewhat a reformer but given this is the catholic church those reforms will be very slow and in the meantime having a Pope people actually like buys it sometime to do its dirty laundry. With Benedict still in power well it probably wouldn't change that much but the Papacy would be a lot less popular and his future successor would have an even bigger hole to drag the Church out of...
 
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I think he might have. He's widely thought to be on the way out, and Pope is a stressful job.
Those recent reports are being denied hard by the Vatican, I think he probably has a little more time left. Especially as there isn't much real reason to deny it if it were true, he's not the current Pope and he's 90, the funeral will have been planned for years and its not like he isn't certain to die sooner rather than later, it would make more sense to prepare the faithful rather than denying everything until he actually drops dead. At that point it just makes them looks a bit silly.
 

Md139115

Banned
Would he have died by now, if that is what you mean, quite possibly. Being pope is one of the most stressful jobs one could have and it certainly would have done his health any good. That said I don't see him still being alive or dying in office as being that different from each other. The biggest difference would be the media portrayal of the pope, and Church. They didn't like Benedict XVI, which could be a result of not being able to understand the terminology he would use. Contrary to popular belief, Francis has really changed anything. A few things such as talks about female deacons (deacons are different than priests) were already talked about before he was pope, he just continued the work that was already done. The biggest difference is Francis is more willing to address the media directly and talk off-script leading to people taking what he says out of context more often.

Completely, utterly agree. I may be a bit leery of some of His Holiness's opinions, but the last year, and really the last six months of Pope Benedict's reign could best be described as a dogpile by the media on the Church. There was just a visceral sense that every hour was going to bring a fresh attack. I actually was starting to see what I thought was the first signs of a resurgence in anti-Catholicism in my area because of it all.

Then along comes this nice, feisty cheery man from Argentina that everyone falls in love with. It's an exaggeration to say he "saved" the Church, but he bought time. Precious, precious time to get its act back together.

See? The Holy Spirit knows what its doing!
 
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