Popes

Answer:

There are two very separate issues: resignation and excommunication.

1) Resignation

A person cannot 'resign' from being a Catholic by doing something such as sending a letter requesting removal from the Baptismal register; Church authorities will not remove a name because it would be to deny that the act of Baptism ever took place. However, regarding marriage, canon 1124 states:

"Without express permission of the competent authority, a marriage is prohibited between two baptised persons of whom one is baptised in the Catholic Church or received into it after baptism and has not defected from it by a formal act and the other of whom is enrolled in a Church or ecclesial community not in full communion with the Catholic Church."

The fact Canon Law recognises that someone may defect from the Catholic Church by a formal act (e.g. joining another church) clearly indicates that a person may leave Catholicism by simply joining another denomination or religion.

2) Excommunication

Excommunication is different from leaving the Catholicism; it means that a person may not receive any of the sacraments of the Church (apart from Reconciliation i.e. confession); however, the individual remains a member of the Church, albeit not one who is in good standing.

Canon 1323.1 restricts excommunication to those over 16 years of age and lists several situations when excommunication cannot be incurred due to such things as pressure, mental incompetence or an act done in ignorance. Canon 1342.1 expressly forbids an excommunication being regarded as permanent. A very few acts incur automatic excommunication e.g. having, performing or assisting in an abortion. (Canon 1398). See related link.

Answer

The teaching of the Catholic Church is based on Scripture. According to Scripture a person is born into the Kingdom of Heaven through spiritual birth in Baptism. This cannot be denied or revoked as is made clear when John the Baptist "....saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, "You brood vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit that befits repentance." (Matthew Ch 3) and when Jesus said "Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has risen no one greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and men of violence take it by force "(Matthew Ch 11)

Catholics regard the pope as the successor of St Peter and according to the Gospel of St. Matthew (Ch 16) Jesus gave the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven to Peter alone. Like any key-holder the role of Peter and his successors is to provide access to the benefits of the Kingdom of Heaven for those authorised to receive them ("feed my lambs." "feed my sheep").

Answer

The excommunication discussion is quite interesting concerning eternal truth. Some Catholics in the past were excommunicated for saying they believed in things that the church did not teach - such as the sun being the centre of the solar system and the planets going round it. We laugh at such beliefs now but what happened to the people who were excommunicated for their enlightenment?

If someone is excommunicated for believing something that the church would now treat as truth why excommunicate anyone? As science advances so does the church's teaching - not quite at the same speed but it does raise issues for ordinary people.

If humans have souls and we can trace our ancestry back to primitive beings then were the souls given at a stroke, later on in human development or did we have them from the outset?" At which point there is problem of different branches of the same family chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans and the wide variety of great apes also having souls. Of course if we go back further our common inheritance from creeping things would give even more creatures souls.

Answer: Clarification to the statement above regarding souls. Catholicism is possibly the only Christian denomination (apart from Eastern Orthodoxy)which regards animals as having souls, but these souls are considered to be finite. As for humans, Catholicism - like all Christian groups - regards these souls as being immortal; in other words, the human soul continues after the body dies. Catholicism also has no difficulty in accepting evolution as this does not detract from God's creative power. However, Catholicism who hold to what is termed "interventionist evolution"; this means that God intervened in the process of evolution to gift humanity with an immortal soul.

Answer

NB - people were notexcommunicated for believing things that were emerging as scientific advancements in astrology and such, they were excommunicated for teaching without first having their finds confirmed and for disobedience. Church doctrine has never changed; the earth centric model was never a doctrine of the Catholic Church.

Please note that the teaching of the Catholic Church is NOT based on Scripture. If you read and know history, you will realize that the New Testament Scriptures are based on the Catholic Church, not the other way 'round. The Scriptures were written by members of the first generation of Christians, and were approved and brought together as the New Testament around 380 A.D. by the Council of Rome and Pope Damasus.

Although people did not see Pope Leo X as a great pope, he was a very bright learner, who deserves a noticeable and well known place among the popes because of the way he emphasized the importance of the church and made Christendom the center of culture. Even though Pope Leo X did sell indulgences and help contribute to the Reformation (even though he did not mean to), you can clearly see that he was also a good Pope, who made some mistakes.

Answer

Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici became a Cardinal-deacon at the age of just 13. He was elected pope, taking the name Leo X, at the age of 36 years, on 9 March 1513, and held this office until his death in 1521. He, in turn, immediately appointed his two sons Giulio de' Medici (aged 20) and Giovanni Angelo de' Medici (aged 14) as Cardinals.

Pope Leo's personal lifestyle was extraordinarily extravagant, but he also provided funds for charities such as retirement homes, hospitals, convents, discharged soldiers, pilgrims, poor students, exiles, cripples and the sick. No matter how much he increased the papal revenue from simony and other sources, he seemed to manage to exceed his income in spending. He continued the rebuilding of St Peter's Basilica, financed by greatly increased sales of indulgences, a decision that led to the Protestant Reformation.

From Wikipedia:

The origin of the festival of All Saints celebrated in the West dates to May 13, 609 or 610, (see Pope Boniface link below) consecrated the (see Pantheon in Rome note below) to the Blessed Virgin and all the martyrs; the feast of the dedicatio Sanctae Mariae ad Martyres has been celebrated at Rome ever since.

The feast of All Saints, on its current date, is traced to the foundation by (see link for Pope Gregory below) (731-741) of an oratory in St. Peter's for the relics "of the holy apostles and of all saints, martyrs and confessors, of all the just made perfect who are at rest throughout the world", with the day moved to November 1.

All Saints Day A holy day of obligation, November 1, commemorating all the blessed in heaven; intended particularly to honor those who have no special feasts.

In the fourth century, groups of martyrs, and later other saints, were honored on a common day in various places. In 609 or 610, the Pantheon, a pagan temple in Rome, was consecrated as a Christian Church in honor of Mary and the martyrs and, later, all saints. In 835, Pope Gregory IV fixed November 1 as the date of the observance.

from Radio Replies, by Fathers Rumble and Carty, 1942

994. I have heard Catholics speak of indulgences for the souls in purgatory? What are indulgences?

Do not mix up the ecclesiastical term indulgence with the modern idea of self-indulgence. An indulgence is not a permission to indulge in sin, but is a remission of punishment due to sin. Now in the early Christian Church certain sins were punished by long public penance, sometimes for days, at other times for years. But the Church was often indulgent, and loosed or freed Christians from all or part of their public penance, if they showed other good dispositions, or performed certain works of charity. The Church had that power in the name of God as surely as the state has the power in its own name to commute a sentence or even release a criminal altogether under certain circumstances. Christ said to the Church, "Whatsoever you shall loose upon earth shall be loosed in heaven." Matt. XVIII., 18. That the merits of Christ and of the Martyrs and Saints of the ages are at the disposal of the Church is also a consequence of the doctrine of the Communion of the Saints. And that power of commuting or even of remitting penances and expiations exists in the Church to-day, being exercised by the granting of indulgences.

995. What do you mean by an indulgence, say, of forty days?

An indulgence of forty days means that the Church liberates us from that amount of expiation of our sins which would be equal to a forty days' public penance in the early Church. It does not mean forty days less purgatory. Such an indulgence is called a partial indulgence.

997. Can indulgences be applied to the souls in purgatory?

Yes, but by God alone. We can but ask Him to accept indulgences on their behalf. But we can certainly offer them with a definite conviction of their normal acceptance by God for those we love, even as we can share our goods in this life with more needy friends. This too is implied by the doctrine of the Communion of Saints.

There are many:

• Papa Ratzinger (in Italy)
• Der Panzerkardinal (in Germany, while prefect of the CDF)
• God's Rottweiler (in US, while prefect of the CDF)
• His Fluffiness (after his first appearance with a camuaro - the "Santa hat")
• The Green Pope (for his work on behalf of the environment)
• B16 (short for Benedict XVI)
• the German Shepherd (as a bishop is often likened to a shepherd)

Youhave to be at least age 25 to be a priest so it wouldtake some time afetr that. One of the youngest US bishops was around age 40.

Usually at least 10 years' ministry in various locations is necessary before being chosen for the episcopate.

In the Anglican Church, one of the youngest bishops ever was in his 30s. But this is an exception. Usually bishops are first consecrated in their late 40s or 50s, and are appointed as suffragens (assistant bishops) before becoming a diocesan bishop.

Most popes wore name John , but to appropriately answer ur question... These 2 names were used 13 times: Innocentand

Leo

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Another answer from our community:

In the vernacular of the twenty-first century, "gay" means someone who embraces a homosexual lifestyle. By the definition there have been no "gay" popes. Over two thousand years, we have had some characters, but none of them publicly embraced a homosexual lifestyle.

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For those of us who were born before that late twentieth century, gay means merry, cheerful, jolly, joyful, blithe, or mirthful. Using that definition, I imagine many of the Popes were cheerful or joyful men.