Has a Pope ever been de-Poped?

[midcan5]

An excellent read for anyone interested in the Papacy and the middle ages.

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/World-Lit-Only-Fire-Renaissance/dp/0316545562/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8]Amazon.com: A World Lit Only by Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance: Portrait of an Age (9780316545563): William Manchester: Books[/ame]

 

[AllieBaba]

isnt the pope chosen by their god? i am always rather confused by that....a catholic friend of mine ..when that pope died 2 weeks after getting poped..said..."god corrected a man made error"
she believed the church made a mistake and god corrected it by taking the pope....

Everything is orchestrated by God, that's a Christian tenet.

But the pope is chosen by the cardinals. As they believe is dictated by God.

 

[editec]

I really don't know...but is it possible? IMO, this guy damaging the Catholic Church, maybe beyond repair.

The future Pope Benedict XVI resisted pleas to defrock a California priest with a record of sexually molesting children, citing concerns including "the good of the universal church," according to a 1985 letter bearing his signature.

AP EXCLUSIVE: Future pope stalled pedophile case | TPM News Pages

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Nope.

No by an eclessiastical court, at least.

One Pope (Was it Clement?...can't remember) stepped down from office, but that was one of those times when there was more than one person claiming papal authority.

That matter was decided by armies of soldiers, not by princes of the Church.

 

[eagleseven]

isnt the pope chosen by their god? i am always rather confused by that....a catholic friend of mine ..when that pope died 2 weeks after getting poped..said..."god corrected a man made error"
she believed the church made a mistake and god corrected it by taking the pope....

"The Holy Spirit enters into the hearts and minds of the College of Cardinals, and makes them choose the new Pope."

Nevermind that the Cardinals bicker for a few weeks beforehand...it is a religiously romanticized political process, akin to parliament forming a new coalition government.

 

[editec]

An excellent read for anyone interested in the Papacy and the middle ages.

Amazon.com: A World Lit Only by Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance: Portrait of an Age (9780316545563): William Manchester: Books

Thanks for the heads up, MidCan.

The history of the Church really is the history of Western Civilization in many respects.

Not that's the whole history, of course, but understanding Western Civilization's development really does demand that we understand that at one time religion and society's governance were largely the same thing.

That's at least part of the reason that I laugh when militant atheists inform us that religions caused so many wars.

Duh!

How could it not? The bedrock principle of monarchism is that GOD put the peers in charge.

So regardless of why people really went to war (it was almost always about control over resources, of course) every war was a RELIGIOUS war for nearly a thousand years of our history.

 

[Cecilie1200]

Okay, let me clarify a few things. First of all, a Pope is deposed, not defrocked. "Defrocked" would mean that his ordination as a priest as been removed, whereas "deposed" means that he's no longer Pope, but he still remains a priest.

Second of all, a Pope can be asked to resign, as in the cases of Celestine V and Gregory XII, or he can be removed, as has actually happened quite a few times. It has not happened since the days of the Holy Roman Empire, and without a Holy Roman Emperor to initiate it, I'm not sure who would have the power to make it happen. It is unclear at the moment whether the Catholic Church has any mechanism in place for deposing a Pope, as the US does for impeaching a President. I don't think so.