Just for the Sake of Comparison

On 16th March 2012, Rowan Williams announced his intention to retire as Archbishop of Canterbury, the retirement taking efect 290 days later on 31st December.  On 4th February 2013, Justin Welby took up office as the new Archbishop of Canterbury, and will be enthroned on 21st March.  The whole process from the announcement of retirement to enthronement of the new Archbishop will take a total of 370 days.

Pope Benedict XVI announced his retirement on 11th February 2013 and retired on 28th February.  Pope Francis was elected 13 days later and will be enthroned on on 19th March, the whole process taking 36 days.

So the complete sequence of events from resignation to enthronement takes more than 10 times as long in the Church of England as it does with the Roman Church.  This difference is also marked if one compares the time from resignation to enthronement.  In the Roman case, it has taken 13 days compared with 80 days in the Church of England.

There is much in the press about the need for reform in the Roman Curia; but, when it comes to organising elections, they seem to be pretty slick.