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So, how is a resigned pope styled? Is he "Pope Emeritus?" Or does he go back to his given name?

May God grant Benedict (Joseph), Bishop of Rome, many blessed years in health and happiness.

What a dilemma for the Orthodox. They would like to see a Conservative Pope but then a conservative would probably be least interested in Orthodox-Catholic re-approachment. The Orthodox think Catholics should have married priests like they do but that would only happen with a Liberal pope who would make them more unhappy. The MP is probably getting worried by now!

Where did you hear that the Orthodox want the Catholics to have married priests? I don't think they really care about what the Catholics do in that regard, other than in their personal opinions.

LOL. I am quite sure the MP is sleeping quite soundly.

We're not losing any sleep over the fact that the Latin church utilizes celibate clergy. It really doesn't effect us in any way. Pope Benedict is respected in Orthodox circles, and Moscow would like to see another, even more, conservative bishop sit on the Roman throne.

Actually, Patriarch Sviatoslav isn't a cardinal (unfortunately), and he's about 15 years younger than John Paul II at the time of the latter's election to the Papacy.

I agree, however, that it would be very cool indeed if His Beatitude were elected. One doesn't technically have to be a cardinal (or even a cleric) to be elected Pope; it's a de facto rather than a de jure requirement.

Statement from Metropolitan Hilarion [mospat.ru] of Volokolamsk. Amen!

And another, from Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew [goarch.org]

From Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, [patheos.com] president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

'Well done, my good and faithful servant..." May he be granted many blessed years in retirement. He asked of HH John Paul II reportedly at least three times permission to retire.

They are speculating on Card. Sandrini, Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, being a Latin American.

An EC pope would be downright awesome ... besides the visibility it would grant the ECCs, it would be delightful to see so many comfortably wrong worldviews simultaneously obliterated ... it would blow millions of minds all at once.

I for one am dedicating my Great Fast to it; secondarily an ECC-friendly Latin. Preferably from the Ordinariate, or Mozarabic. :-) Our Lord's will Be done, though.

Well, considering that there were speculations in the news that the next Pope could be from America. So one would hope that the Ruthenians would see their first Pontiff in the Vatican (wishful thinking). I'm pretty sure that Metropolitan William Skurla could even be considered for all we know.

The idea of an Eastern Catholic as Roman Pontiff goes back at least to the novel The Shoes of the Fisherman (1963) by Morris West. It's a wonderful idea, but not very realistic. A very interesting Eastern Catholic candidate would be Moran Mor Baselios Cleemis [dlmedia.indiatimes.in], the Catholicos of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church. A wonderful Latin candidate would be Cardinal Luis Tagle of Manila [en.wikipedia.org]. But as everyone knows, "He who enters the conclave as Pope, leaves it as a cardinal."

The conclave should elect Patriarch Kirill of Moscow as the next pope.

Personally I'd prefer Patriarch Bartholomew I as Pope. He's known to speak Italian. But that just ain't gonna happen.

I am confused. I am still fairly new (4 years) to the Byzantine Rite, so my question may be misplaced. I thought Eastern Catholics considered themselves independent, i.e., they are their own Church who are in agreement with the Pope and Western Church, but they do not consider themselves organizationally part of the Roman Rite. In that case, they couldn't be the Pope, could they? It sounds like the ones mentioned above are not Cardinals.