John L Allen Jr explains the absolute power of the Pope, but also that two current controversial situations are very different in nature.
Although not generally known for the limpidity of its prose, the Code of Canon Law does deliver at least one sentence of crystalline clarity in canon 331, regarding the Roman Pontiff: “By virtue of his office he possesses supreme, full, immediate and universal ordinary power in the Church, which he is always able to exercise freely.”
Not that such a phrase requires much unpacking, but in effect it means a pope can do pretty much whatever he wants.
