Abdication v Resignation

[Jimmygill88]

I think the Pope has abdicated rather than resigned. He is currently the vicar or Christ not the chairman of a Multinational oil or gas seller. He is also an absolute monarch so it’s not a simple resignation really

 

[choliks]

Here’s the snippet from Bro. JR’s post in another thread:

I can’t remember who it was. Someone mentioned that maybe this is an opportunity for the restoration of the papal tiara. While everything is possible, because the pope makes the law. This seems unlikely.

The Vatican sources said that the Holy Father deliberately chose to use “renounce” instead of “abdicate”, to continue the tradition establish by Pope Paul VI that the pope is not a monarch, but first and foremost he is the Bishop of Rome and the elected sovereign of Vatican City, which is a secular office since Vatican City is a country.

Obviously, if he resigns as Bishop of Rome, he also abdicates as the sovereign of Vatican City. The idea behind Pope Paul’s thinking was that the Pope is not the sovereign of the Church. He is the Pontiff.

It may sound like nit-picking, but being that Pope Paul was a lawyer, I’m sure that the subtle differences in these weord meant a great deal to him.

 

[YoungTradCath]

“Resign” does sound uber secular and gives off a bitter taste, yes. But he used the word “renounce.” I think that works well.

 

[bzkoss236]

I personally feel that ‘renounce’ has a negative sound to it, as if it is rejecting something as bad, but surely the Holy Throne is not bad. I almost feel ‘retired’ would work better, even though he’s not technically retiring. Or just ‘stepped down’… idk