International Law
Pope Reverts to Traditional Election Rule: Two Thirds to Put Next Pope in Office
Bowing to traditional canon law, Pope Benedict XV has reinstated the traditional rule for papal elections.
From now on a two-thirds majority must vote to elect a new pope, the next time the College of Cardinals is called upon to do so, reports AP. Benedict himself was elected under a majority-rules standard.
It isn’t all that unusual for a pope to change the election rules; popes often have done so–only to have their successors do so again, says Rev. Jesus Minambres, a canon law professor at Santa Croce University in Rome. “You could write an encyclopedia in the way cardinals elected popes over the centuries,” he told AP.
