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Dear catholic.com visitors: This Catholic Answers website, with all its free resources, is the world’s largest source of explanations for Catholic beliefs and practices. We receive no funding from the institutional Church and rely entirely on your generosity to sustain this website with trustworthy, accessible content. If every visitor this month donated $1, catholic.com would be fully funded for an entire year. If you’ve never made a gift, now is the time. Your donation will be matched dollar for dollar this week only. Thanks and God bless.
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Q&A

Who ran the Catholic Church after John Paul II died and before Benedict XVI was elected?

Question:

Who ran the Catholic Church after John Paul II died and before Benedict XVI was elected?

Answer:

During an interregnum (Latin: “between reigns”), the day-to-day business of the Church is administered by the cardinal camerlengo (chamberlain). The camerlengo during the interregnum of 2005 was Eduardo Cardinal Martinez Somalo. The camerlengo does not make any decisions that are not of immediate necessity to the administration of the Church. Any decision that is not urgent to the running of the Church is postponed until a new pope is elected.

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