duration and which impedes us from sufficiently exercising the functions of our apostolic ministry; or in the case of another serious and prolonged impediment", he renounced his office "both as bishop of Rome as well as head of the same holy Catholic Church". Pope John Paul II wrote a letter in 1989 offering to resign if he became incapacitated. The first said that if ill health or some other unforeseen difficulty prevented him from "sufficiently carrying out the functions of my apostolic ministry … I renounce my sacred and canonical office, both as bishop of Rome as well as head of the holy Catholic Church." In 1994 he wrote a document that he apparently planned to read aloud, which explained that he had determined he could not resign merely because of age, as other bishops are required to do, but only "in the presence of an incurable illness or an impediment", and that he would therefore continue in office. He prayed in his will, written in 2000, that God "would help me to recognise how long I must continue this service", suggesting that renunciation was possible. In the weeks before his death in 2005, there was press speculation that John Paul might resign because of his failing health. Incapacitation Canon law makes no provision for a pope being incapacitated by reason of health, either temporarily or permanently; nor does it specify what body has the authority to certify that the pope is incapacitated. It does state that "When the Roman See is vacant, or completely impeded, no innovation is to be made in the governance of the universal Church." See also Sede vacante Jewish pope Andreas, a Jewish legend about a Jewish boy in the Middle Ages from the German town of Mainz who is kidnaped while asleep, told his parents had died, converts to Catholicism, becomes a priest and is elected Pope but then engineers a meeting with Mainz Jews, discovers his rabbi father is still alive when he appears, before admitting to his father that he is his long-lost son, abdicates from the papacy, converts back to Judaism and moves back to Mainz. References Works cited Abdication Catholic Church legal terminology Holy See Papal