What happens with leadership of the Catholic Church when a Pope gets sick or is incapacitated?

Although the Vatican has detailed laws and rituals to guarantee the transfer of power when a Pope dies or renounces, they do not apply whether he is sick or even unconscious. And there are no specific norms that delineate what happens to the leadership of the Catholic Church if a Pope is totally incapacitated.

As a result, despite the fact that Pope Francis remains hospitalized in a critical condition due to a complex lung infection, It is still dad and is very commanded. The Vatican reported Sunday that Francisco was aware and even receiving supplementary oxygen. He rested for a quiet night then of having had a long respiratory crisis one day before he required high oxygen flows to help him breathe.

However, Francisco’s hospital stay raises obvious questions about what happens if he loses consciousness for a prolonged period, or if he could follow the steps of Pope Benedict XVI and resign if he becomes unable to lead. Monday, the Francisco Hospital Stay He will reach ten days, matching the duration of his hospitalization in 2021 for surgery to remove 33 centimeters from his colon.

His age and prolonged disease have revived interest in how papal power is exercised in the Holy See, how it is transferred and under what circumstances. This is how it works:

The Pope is the successor of the apostle Peter, the head of the College of Bishops, the Vicar of Christ and the shepherd of the Universal Catholic Church on Earth, according to the Internal Canonical Law of the Church.

Nothing has changed in its status, role or power since Francisco was chosen as the 266th Pope on March 13, 2013. That status is by theological design.

Francisco may be in charge, but already delegates the daily management of the Vatican and the Church to a team of officials who operate whether he is in the apostolic palace or not, and whether he is conscious or not.

The main one among them is the Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin. In a sign that Francisco’s hospitalization did not provide for changes in the governance of the Church, Parolin was in Burkina Faso when Francisco entered the hospital on February 14. Parolin has already returned to the Vatican.

Other Vatican functions are normally advancing, including the celebrations of the Holy Year 2025 of the Vatican.

On Sunday, for example, Archbishop Rino Fisichella celebrated a retirement Mass in the Basilica of San Pedro that Francisco should have celebrated. Fisichella offered a special prayer for Francisco from the altar before pronouncing the homily that the Pope had prepared.

• What happens when a Pope gets sick?

Canon law has provisions for when a bishop gets sick and cannot direct his diocese, but not for a Pope. Canon 412 says that a diocese can be declared «prevented» if your bishop – due to «captivity, banishment, exile or disability» – cannot fulfill its pastoral functions. In such cases, the daily management of the diocese goes to an auxiliary bishop, a general vicar or someone else.

Although Francisco is the Bishop of Rome, there is no explicit disposition for the Pope if he also becomes «prevented.» Canon 335 simply declares that when the Holy See is «vacant or totally prevented», nothing can be altered in the governance of the Church. But it does not say what the Holy See is «totally prevented» or what provisions could come into play if it ever were.

In 2021, a team of canonists set out to propose rules to fill out that legislative vacuum. They created a canonical crowdsourcing initiative to elaborate a new ecclesiastical law that regulates the position of a retired Pope, as well as norms that are applied when a Pope cannot govern, either temporarily or permanently.

The proposed standards explain that, with medical advances, it is completely likely that at some point a Pope is alive but unable to govern. He argues that the Church must provide for the declaration of a «totally prevented headquarters» and the transfer of power for the good of its own unit.

Under the proposed norms, the governance of the Universal Church would go to the Colegio de Cardenales. In the case of a temporary impediment, they would appoint a commission to govern, with periodic medical check -up every six months to determine the state of the Pope.

• What about cards?

Francisco confirmed in 2022 that shortly after being elected Pope wrote a letter of resignation, which would be invoked if he became medically incapacitated. He said he gave it to the then Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, and assumed that Bertone had given her to the Parolin office when she retired.

The text is not public, and the conditions that Francisco contemplated for a resignation are unknown. It is also unknown if such a letter will be canonically valid. Canon law requires that a papal resignation be «manifests freely and properly» – as was the case when Benedict announced his resignation in 2013.

In 1965, Pope Paul VI wrote letters to the dean of the Cardinals College hypothesizing that if he became seriously ill, the Dean and other cardinals should accept his resignation. The letter was never invoked, since Paul lived another 13 years and died in office.

• What happens when a Pope dies or renounces?

The only time the papal power changes hands is when a Pope dies or renounces. At that time, a whole series of rites and rituals that govern the «interregno» – the period between the end of a pontificate and the choice of a new Pope.

During that period, known as «vacant headquarters», Camarlengo, or Chamberlain, directs the administration and finances of the Holy See. Certify the death of the Pope, seal the papal apartments and prepare for the burial of the Pope before a conclave to choose a new Pope. The position is currently occupied by Cardinal Kevin Farrell, the head of the Vatican lay office.

The shrimp does not have any role or duty if the Pope is simply sick or incapacitated in another way.

Likewise, the Dean of the Cardinals College, who would preside over a papal funeral and organize the conclave, has no additional role if the Pope is simply ill. That position is currently occupied by the Italian cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, 91.

Earlier this month, Francisco decided to keep Re in office even after his five -year mandate expired, instead of giving way to someone new. He also extended the mandate of Vice-Decano, Argentine Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, 81.