Should the Pope Resign?
by William Kilpatrick, Catholic Family News:
Should the Pope resign? Ever since Archbishop Vigano called for Pope Francis to resign in the wake of several high profile sex-abuse cover-ups, that has been a burning question for Catholics.
The chief objection to resignation is that it would create a dangerous precedent. Following closely on the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, it would create an expectation that all future popes would at some point have to resign. Writing in The Weekly Standard, Jonathan Last suggest that “two abdications in a row would have the practical effect of breaking the modern papacy.” It would turn the papacy, he says, “into an expressly political office.”
Nevertheless, Pope Francis should resign. And he should heed Vigano’s call to accept the resignation of “cardinals and bishops who covered up McCarrick’s abuses.”
Why? Because the gravity of the scandals—in the U.S., Chile, Honduras, Germany, England, Ireland, Australia, and elsewhere—must be matched with an equally serious response. And it’s hard to imagine anything short of resignation that would show a firm purpose of amendment on the part of the Pope.
Vigano’s accusations are of a radical nature, and, if they are accurate, then the response to them must also be radical. Vigano doesn’t merely criticize the Pope, he accuses him of colluding with evil. He refers to the “grave, disconcerting and sinful conduct of Pope Francis.” He charges Francis with “multiplying exponentially with his supreme authority the evil done by McCarrick.” He adds: “And how many other evil pastors is Francis still continuing to prop up in their active destruction of the Church!” If Vigano’s charges are true, then, of course, the Pope should resign.
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