Papal retirement and the media

The Holy Father's illness this week has prompted the media and others to recycle discussions of papal retirement. The New York Times this morning has an article featuring two quotes that were reported two and a half years ago by John L. Allen, Jr. of the National Catholic Reporter.

The Times:

"I think the people around him must tell him he should stop," an Orthodox leader told reporters during the pope's visit in 2002 to Bulgaria, at a time when his decline was especially noticeable. "He is suffering like Christ."

That same year, however, the pope drew the opposite lesson from Christ's suffering in response to questions about whether he was becoming too ill to continue.

"Christ did not come down from the cross," he said, by several accounts.


John Allen:

“I think the people around him must tell him he should stop,” Orthodox Metropolitan Simeon told reporters. “He is suffering like Christ.”

While Simeon’s concern was heartfelt, he may have reached for the wrong comparison to persuade John Paul to stand aside. One of the pope’s top aides recently told reporters that he had heard John Paul respond to resignation rumors by invoking the same model.

“But Christ did not come down from the cross!” the pope said.