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Whoo boy, this has the potential to become a Californian Summer of "help help the entire state is burning down" levels of heated, and get us all banned. I'm biting my tongue real hard here not to snark about the Mormon church, second only to Scientology in "the brass neck of this guy" for its founder.
Let's all agree not to throw shade on one another's denominations and just wait for the results of the conclave?
Sorry, dunking on Catholics wasn’t really my intention, and I could have used softer language. I think you make a good point above about this being bureaucratic in nature, but it prompts the genuine question: once a Pope dies, where does the broad Church authority reside, exactly? Is it a specific group of people, or is more hand-wavy, or is it purely retrospective? Whatever the answer, has that always been the case?
The College of Cardinals.
Their powers are limited, but it is they who rule when the seat is vacant.
It's an interesting story actually, because the power to appoint the next Pope was seized by the cardinals from the Holy Roman Emperor (somewhat understandably given he was six years old at the time). Until then, noble families would fight pretty hard to get the seat.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investiture_Controversy
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