Editing Palmarian Catholic Church (section)

====Succession====

To date, there have been four Popes in El Palmar de Troya and the current incumbent is [[Joseph Odermatt|Pope Peter III]], since 2016. The Palmarian Church had a [[College of Cardinals]] between 1978 and 1995, but it never had the opportunity to select a Pope in a [[conclave]]. So far in the history of the Palmarian Church, each Pope has chosen his successor by decree, and has chosen his Secretary of State.{{sfn|Lundberg|2020|pp=125, 176, 185}}

There is some precedent for this from [[Papal selection before 1059|before 1059]] in the Catholic Church, when at times a pope would often nominate his preferred successor. On the question of whether the pope can appoint his successor, Catholic theologians and canonists have historically been divided. Some assert absolutely that he can; others, such as [[Thomas Cajetan|Cajetan]], [[Juan de Torquemada (cardinal)|Torquemada]], and [[Peter Paludanus|Paludanus]], say that he is forbidden to appoint his own successor by divine and natural law, so that if he attempted it, the appointment would be void; others, such as [[Francisco Suárez|Suárez]], take a middle position that the pope can choose his successor in rare cases when urgent necessity of the Church requires it, but cannot prescribe this as the ordinary mode of succession, and if he were to do so it should not be observed, because the regular institution of a practice so inclined to lead to [[nepotism]] would be an unjust law.<ref>{{cite dictionary |last=Ortolan |first=T. |title=Élection des papes |encyclopedia=Dictionnaire de théologie catholique |volume=IV |year=1910 |at=coll. 2281–5 |url=https://archive.org/details/dictionnairedetv4pt2vaca/page/503/mode/1up}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Petra |first=Vincenzo |title=Commentaria ad constitutiones apostolicas seu bullas singulas Summorum Pontificum |volume=IV |location=Rome |year=1711 |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=sMdzk1KPk3cC&pg=PA213 213–5]}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Ferraris |first=Lucius |authorlink=Lucius Ferraris |title=Papa |encyclopedia=Bibliotheca canonica iuridica moralis theologica |location=Rome |publisher=Polyglot Press of the [[Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples|Propaganda]] |volume=VI |year=1890 |pages=26–30 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uJ8sAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA26}}</ref><ref>Suárez, ''De fide,'' disp. X, sec. IV, [https://books.google.com/books?id=aCcNAAAAYAAJ&lr&pg=PA311 nn. 14–16]</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Castellari |first=Giovanni |title=La Santa Sede |volume=II |location=Milan |year=1903 |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=8qELAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA634 634–9]}}</ref> {{ill|Anton Straub|de}} argues that there is no reason the pope's supreme power should not extend to the appointment of his successor, and that while a number of historical popes expressed their belief that they are incapable of this, they did not define that.<ref>{{cite book |last=Straub |first=Anton |title=De Ecclesia Christi |location=Innsbruck |year=1912 |volume=I |pages=492–5}}</ref>

In the 6th century, [[Pope Felix IV|Felix III]] appointed [[Pope Boniface II|Boniface II]] as his successor, and though his wishes were initially disregarded, Boniface was accepted as such after the death of [[Antipope Dioscorus]]; yet when Boniface attempted in like manner to appoint [[Pope Vigilius|Vigilius]] as his successor, he was compelled by the clergy to retract this decree as contrary to divine law.<ref>{{cite book |last=Baus |first=Karl |translator-last=Biggs |translator-first=Anselm |chapter=The Papacy between Byzantium and the German Kingdoms from Hilary (461–468) to Sergius I (687–701) |title=The Imperial Church from Constantine to the Early Middle Ages |location=London |publisher=Burns & Oates |year=1980 |isbn=0-86012-084-8 |page=626}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Duchesne |first=Louis |author-link=Louis Duchesne |title=L'Église au VI<sup>e</sup> siècle |location=Paris |year=1925 |pages=142–146 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HjK9pfbfYhUC}}</ref>