HERE’S AN ARTICLE THE PROCLAIMS THAT JOHN PAUL II HAS NO LIVING WILL.
The basis for the claim?
He hasn’t showed one to his doctors.
This, along with the article’s repeated snarky comments about the pope "imposing his will" on the Church, demonstrates the MSM’s cluelessness about such matters.
The fact that the pope hasn’t shown a living will or other document saying what to do if he falls into a persistent coma proves exactly nothing.
If the pope has such a document, its existence wouldn’t be made known until such time as he fell into a coma or persistent vegetative state or similar condition. Given Vatican sensibilities, it wouldn’t be seemly for knowledge of such a document to be public prior to that, in part because of the destabilizing effect it might have or would be perceived by Vaticanistas to have. If it were known to exist and the pope got sick, people would demand its release. If it was not released, a mediastorm would errupt. If it were released, people would go to town arguing about its provisions and whether they had been fulfilled or not, and another mediastorm would errupt. The only way to keep things peaceful would mean not acknowledging the document’s existence until its use was called for.
The pope would thus likely deposit it with someone he could trust–either the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith or–more likely–the Cardinal Camerlengo who will run stuff upon his death until a new pope is elected.
Upon the pope being persistently comatose or otherwise not in control of his faculties, the individual tasked with keeping the document would then produce it and begin implementation of its procedures.
Doctors would not be informed of it until that time.
