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Strategies & Market Trends : VOLTAIRE'S PORCH-MODERATED -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dealer who wrote (9348)	10/23/2000 3:00:56 PM
From: T L Comiskey	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 65232

Put em up...Put em UUPppp...... Pope gives em the Pope a Dope....... A left...a rt...another left Cardinal Denies He Wants Pope to Abdicate MECHELEN, Belgium (Reuters) - A Belgian Roman Catholic cardinal who said that he would not be surprised if Pope John Paul II opted to abdicate next year denied Monday that he wished the Pope would do so. "What I did not want to say is that it would be wishful for this pope to abdicate, or that I would like to have him abdicate or that he is no longer doing his job well," Cardinal Godfried Danneels told a news conference. In his new book "Frankly Speaking" released last week, Danneels said that the 80-year-old pontiff could abdicate next year. The Vatican Thursday responded with a tersely worded statement denying that the Pope had any plans to retire after this year. But Danneels Monday said the public reaction to his comments were exaggerated. "The media magnified what is actually an evident consideration," he said. "Taking into account increasing life expectancy, you cannot remain forever at the head of such a large institution," he added. In his book, which takes the form of interviews on topics ranging from science and politics to culture, Danneels comments on whether a retirement age of 75 should apply to pontiffs, as it does to bishops. "The question will inevitably be posed in the same form to popes. And it would not surprise me if the Pope were to retire after 2000. "He wanted at all costs to reach the jubilee year 2000, but I consider him capable of retiring afterwards," he said in the book. Last January, a German bishop, Karl Lehmann, caused a storm when he aired the idea that the Pope might one day retire if he felt he could no longer do his job properly. Popes usually remain in their post for life. The last pope to resign willingly was Celestine V, who stepped down in 1294. Gregory XII reluctantly abdicated in 1415 in order to resolve a dispute when there was more than one pope sitting at the same time. According to Canon 332 of Church Law, a pope can resign but he has to do so freely and, since he is Supreme Pontiff, no one has to accept the resignation.