Major Variola (ret)
It would be very cool karma if the Pope were to be vegetative but indefinately prolongable (thanks of course to the fruits of the scientific method which is the antiPope). One imagines this will eventually happen. Or are there rules to replace a useless Pope? Does Alexander Haig get to be interim Pope?
This is a nightmare scenario for the Vatican. There is no legal route to remove a living Pope, and there are certain documents required for the running of the Church which can be signed *only* by the pontiff. A vegetable Pope would basicly lock up the mechanisms of the Church. I have no doubt that a lot of Canon Law lawyers are trying to find a loophole at the moment. JP2 is clearly circling the drain. Peter Trei