The Catholic Church’s leader, Pope Benedict XVI officially and historically resigned at the Vatican in Rome, Italy, Thursday morning in front of his large school of world Cardinals.
The Pope, who appeared tired, said his good-byes and gave his final benediction to a College of Cardinals, was also the first Pope to resign in more than 500 years after the last Pope who stepped down.
The 85-year-old Pontiff has been the Catholic Church’s leader since 2006 and prior to him was Pope John Paul II, who was Pope for close to 30 years, until his death in 2005.
Pope Benedict XVI, who is German, and Pope John Paul II who was Polish, are Popes who in many decades have been Catholic leaders of European ancestry, possibly leaving slim chance for an American Pope to be in charge.
Aside from many other troubles surrounding the Catholic Church, the appointing of a possible future American Pope has been a controversy within the church as well.
The reasons why it is unlikely for an American or a non-European Cardinal to become the next Pope is because historically it has been the strictest and religious fashion to keep a Cardinal that has lived and presided closest to the Vatican, which is located in Europe.
Also, despite of cultural, political beliefs and differences between European and American Cardinals, Europeans usually stick together, and will continue their force to keep Europeans in power within the vatican.
Moreover, according to Fox News, there are two-thirds of the voting cardinals who are the majority, and the majority of the Papal voters are still dominated by Italians and other Europeans.
So this likely leaves out American and non-European Cardinals to be the next Pope after Pope Benedict.
This also leaves New York’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral Cardinal, Timothy Dolan out of the running, despite being one of the Cardinals of a handful that some of his fellow Cardinals and Arch-Bishops mentioned for possible run.
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