How Are Popes Elected?
How Are Popes Elected? Wednesday June 27, 2007#spacer{clear:left}#abc #sidebar{margin-top:1.5em}zSB(3,3) While Pope Benedict XVI was elected only a little over two years ago, his thoughts have turned to his successor–or, at least, to how his successor will be elected. On Tuesday, June 26, the Holy Father issued a motu proprio, a special kind of papal document that addresses a need that the pope has perceived in the Church. In this case, the document, “De Aliquibus Mutationibus in Normis de Electione Romani Pontificis,” overrides a change that Pope John Paul II had made to the system for electing a pope. In 1996, in the apostolic constitution “
