In the 728 years that have passed since St Celestine established this legal precedent, the right of a pope to resign remains ensured in church law.

The law is not very detailed, saying only that the decision must be made freely and "duly manifested". No one needs to formally accept a pope's resignation for it to be valid.

The canonist Geraldina Boni told Catholic News Service, "It is no longer inconceivable for a pope to resign, with this door having been ‘opened,' as Francis himself has said several times".

However, she added "this situation must be regulated".

Boni also suggested the need to regulate issues such as what to do when a pope is unable to govern the universal church when he is completely, permanently and irreversibly impeded or impaired because of a debilitating illness or other conditions.

Boni and other canonists launched a project in 2021 to draft legislative proposals that could be studied and discussed on an online platform. The aim is to present the suggestions to "the supreme legislator", the pope, for his consideration.

One of the proposals is on the legal status or "canonical condition of the bishop of Rome who resigned his office."

Many of the suggestions mirror the approaches taken by retired Pope Benedict.

For example, the proposal says "the manifestation of the resignation must preferably be put into writing and ordinarily presented in a consistory of the College of Cardinals or in another way that makes it publicly knowable".

However, some of the suggestions depart from Pope Benedict's actions, the biggest of which is the retired pope's title.

Instead of "pope emeritus," the proposal says the retired pontiff "receives the title of bishop emeritus of Rome," and he "uses the ring that every bishop must wear". Photos of the retired Pope show him wearing the cardinal's ring.

"The bishop emeritus of Rome does not assume or regain the dignity of cardinal nor the functions that are attached to it," the proposal says. It added, "However, in liturgical and canonical matters, the bishop emeritus of Rome has the privileges and faculties attributed to cardinals".

Cardinal-designate Gianfranco Ghirlanda, a Jesuit theologian and canon lawyer, said "Having two people with the title of ‘pope,' even if one added 'emeritus,' it cannot be said that this might not generate confusion in public opinion".

The idea of more than one pope at one time "dangerously mixes up the precise meaning of the Petrine ministry. Which is that of being a sign of unity of the church, therefore, one sign of unity of the church," he said in his talk.

Boni told CNS, "We will see if the work done by us university professors has been considered — even in criticising it or departing from it — by the eventual drafters of any papal legislation".

"Certainly, the wide debate that has built up on the issue has helped dismantle a taboo that had no reason to exist," she said of laws on the status of a retired pope.

Sources

• CruxNow

Pell is one of the highest-ranking Church figures to speak publicly on the need for these new rules.

The situation became an issue in 2013 when Pope Benedict, 93, became the first pontiff in 700 years to abdicate.

Church law says a pope can resign, as long as he does so willingly and not under pressure. Still, specific rules on his status, title, and prerogatives are lacking.

"The protocols on the situation of a pope who has resigned need to be clarified, to strengthen the forces for unity," Pell, 79, writes in his book, "Prison Journal".

The book recounts 13 months Pell spent in solitary confinement.

Pell, who has always maintained his innocence, was cleared of sex abuse charges in April and has returned to Rome. He was Vatican treasurer until 2018.

"While the retired pope could retain the title of 'pope emeritus', he should be re-nominated to the College of Cardinals so that he is known as 'Cardinal X, Pope Emeritus'. He should not wear the white papal soutane (cassock) and should not teach publicly," Pell writes.

In the book, Pell comments, "probably the measures would be best introduced by a pope who had no surviving predecessor". That means that in the present Vatican situation, Francis would have to wait until after Benedict dies.

Days before Benedict abdicated in 2013, he scripted his own rules. He invested himself with the title pope emeritus, deciding to continue to wear white and to live in the Vatican.

But his presence has caused some confusion among the faithful. Some extreme right-wing conservatives still refuse to recognise Francis as pope.

Benedict has occasionally allowed his views on specific subjects to be aired outside the Vatican. This has pleased some fellow conservatives who have used them as ammunition to contest his successor Pope Francis' more open-minded and inclusive papacy.

"There is only one pope," Pell said in an interview with Reuters in his Rome apartment near a Vatican gate.

Others have suggested that since a pope is also the bishop of Rome, a former pontiff should be called 'bishop emeritus of Rome'.

He would then be subject to the same written rules, last updated in 2004, that cover retired bishops.

Those rules say any bishop emeritus "will want to avoid every attitude and relationship that could even hint at some kind of parallel authority to that of the diocesan bishop, with damaging consequences for the pastoral life and unity of the diocesan community".

Source

• U.S. News