It's because people live a lot longer nowadays (bishops of Rome included), and since the Pope is a public figure, it's a big deal to the news media. Typically they ignore the Catholic church the rest of the time (unless it's to cover some scandal). I take it a lot of people in the mainstream media aren't Catholic (or at least not knowledgeable Catholics), so to them it's a strange spectacle to cover.
If Rowan Williams (Archbishop of Canterbury) died and there was a bit of a delay in electing his successor, I imagine you'd hear about it in the news, but probably not much outside of the UK, since his role as pastoral head (below the British Monarch) in the Anglican communion is simply not as central as the pontiff in the Roman Catholic hierarchy.
If Billy Graham died and there was a dispute over his succession, it might have a similar, but smaller media coverage, but still, there just isn't the same equivalent in the Protestant world.
But you're right, the Catholic Church doesn't suddenly evaporate if there's a delay in election of Popes. While I'm not one of those conspiracy theorists who thinks we haven't had a real Pope since 1958, I do admit there have been interregnum periods of up to 4 years in the past, and during period of the Western Schism there was a Pope, but several pretenders to the throne (and people couldn't have been blamed for being confused as to which was the valid one at the time).
The Catholic Church has a "government" in the sense of a church government, but it's not as if the day to day work of the parishes around the world grinds to a halt if the Pope isn't sitting in his chair awake and alert. Some people (perhaps Dan Brown included) forget that despite being a hierarchy, the simple fact is that logistically speaking, a spiritual organization of over a billion members simply can't be run like "The Apprentice."
In the absence of a Pope the role is fulfilled by the Cardinal Camerlengo, who is essentially a bishop who acts as the Pope's chief secretary. The movie depicts "Patrick McKenna" (played by Ewan McGregor) in this role, but inaccurately, as a mere priest. Of course the Pope (and in his absence, the Camerlengo) would be advised by the college of cardinals.
The movie's thing about the "preferred" cardinals being threatened and so forth was also largely inaccurate. Theoretically any confirmed Catholic male is "papabile" (able to be elected Pope). Even if all of those guys had been killed, or even if somehow the entire college of cardinals was blown up, a new Pope could still be elected, and the Church would not collapse.
http://www.historyversusthedavincicode.com/
History vs. the Da Vinci Code
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katentek
14 years ago
Thanks for your thoughtful reply . . . makes sense what you are saying.
To me the Catholic church is a baffling institution so your insight is interesting to me.
"In a universe so full of wonders human beings have managed to invent boredom. Quite astonishing."
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kurgan-10
14 years ago
Thanks, well I'm happy to be of help any way I can.
Yeah, I guess the bottom line is that the spiritual leader of the largest Christian "denomination" on earth is a newsworthy figure. Since a lot of what the Pope teaches goes against what many pundits in the West stand for (both so-called 'liberals' and so-called 'conservatives'), it's a toss up whether to ignore him or just cover stories that have a negative tinge to them.
Every time there's an election there's all sorts of speculation about whether the next Pope will be "the one" that will finally live up to the expectations of Western liberals/convservatives and be one of them. Once disappointment sets in, it's back to ignoring again (until the next scandal worthy bit of news).
At least that's the way it seems sometimes! If you look at Catholic news services, you mostly get the day to day on what encyclicals and sermons the Pope gives, his work in ecumenical stuff, etc. in other words the positive and constructive stuff, not just when something goes wrong or fingers get pointed. I guess theoretically he's like the president of the Catholic Church, but it's a slightly different system than a national government (even Vatican City State is run more like a bureaucracy and tourist spot than a country, from what little I know, and the Pope delegates that stuff to others even though he's theoretically the visible leader).
It's interesting, because I saw a humor show one time that was comparing perception in the West of another religious leader, the Dalai Lama to the Pope. Apparently the Dalai Lama is more popular, but more people assume he agrees with them on stuff than the Pope (which turns out not to be true, at least in the small biased survey).
http://www.historyversusthedavincicode.com/
History vs. the Da Vinci Code
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