How Pope Benedict unwittingly made the Catholic case for 'conscious uncoupling'

If a pope can painlessly walk away from his relationship with the Catholic flock, why do divorced laypeople need annulment?

Divorce
(Image credit: (Illustration by Lauren Hansen | Images courtesy Thinkstock))

When Pope Benedict XVI announced he was stepping down as pope a year ago — dropping the news almost casually, in Latin, at a meeting about an upcoming canonization — nobody was sure what to call it. No living pope had handed off the keys of St. Peter since Gregory XII in 1415. If Pope Benedict had only waited some 14 months to announce his retirement — or abdication, or vacation — we might have had an apt phrase at the ready: Conscious uncoupling.

Gwyneth Paltrow didn't make up the term to describe her separation from husband Chris Martin — conscious uncoupling as a relationship-cleaving tool was apparently coined by Katherine Woodward Thomas in 2010 — but she made the phrase famous, and even threw in a tutorial on the practice by Dr. Habib Sadeghi and Dr. Sherry Sami, a husband-and-wife team of doctors (osteopath and dentist/orthodontist, respectively) embraced by Paltrow and other celebrities for their holistic approach to medicine and spiritual healing.

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.