I am not a Catholic , I am in early thirties and I have already seen three popes? Why not get someone in the pink of his health and youth?
I am not a Catholic , I am in early thirties and I have already seen three popes? Why not get someone in the pink of his health and youth?
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I agree with you. I have already seen 5 popes… sooo yes find a young cardinal but I think you have to be are 65 years old to be a pope. I will fact check myself but I think that is a requirement
Technically, any Catholic man can become of a the Pope. Realistically however, you have to be a cardinal. This requires someone to go through priest school, become a pastor in a parish, become a bishop, and while a bishop become a cardinal. It takes years to accomplish these things, if you ever accomplish them at all (priests most do not). As a result, there is no realistic way someone becomes a cardinal under the age of 45 or 50.
Then, you have to establish your reputation among other cardinals. Like politics, the longer you are in the game, the more connections you have. So, although there may be some young 50 year old cardinals at present, they are likely not well known or popular enough that those have been cardinal for the last ten years.
They don’t really want a pope to stay in office for too long. Very long reigns may be a problem from the standpoint of managing different tendencies and different ambitions within the Church. About 10 years is what they aim for.
Edit: typos
They would never get the votes.
There are faction within the Catholic church with different agendas. They will never find someone that enough people are willing to accept if he’s likely to reign for 40 years. Someone that’s likely to reign for 5-10 years is much easier to get people to compromise about even if they are not the perfect choice.
There’s a 44yo cardinal so he could become the next pope, in principle
John Paul II became pope at about 58 and served until his death in 2005. So, it can happen.
If you look at the history of the popes you’ll see some extremes for sure.
Yea where’s are Tonka tough popes at
Politics, cardinals spend their entire life gathering followers to be elected when needed, you can imagine how a bunch of old men would react toward someone young with less influence, he’ll be buried alive
The tradition of having older individuals ascend to the papacy has to do with the role of the Pope being more about experience, wisdom, and spiritual maturity rather than physical vigor. The selection process for a Pope is typically focused on those who have spent many years serving the church, gaining both theological knowledge and pastoral experience. The idea is that these qualities are essential for leading the global Catholic community.
Also, the papacy is seen as a spiritual vocation rather than a political office, and the elderly candidates are often viewed as having a closer connection to the wisdom of the Church. While younger candidates could certainly bring energy and durability, the selection process places greater importance on experience, trustworthiness, and spiritual authority.
I think these days the try to pick someone who will have lots of wisdom. Also honestly it has become more political too. Now they really focus on which country the pope will come from. A pope will not most likely come from the U.S. as the U.S. it looked as too powerful of a country.
Everyone hates the youth?
The old Cardinals do not want to forgo a chance at Popehood or many never want to be Pope though choosing a long term bad Pope would be considered undesirable. Any Catholic male over the age of 18 can be elected Pope…doesn’t even have to be a Preist…just Catholic and Male and over 18. However, there hasn’t been a young Pope other than a Cardinal since the 1300s.
It takes time to reach the level where you qualify to be Pope.
Priest – Bishop – Arch Bishop – Cardinal – Pope.
There are sometimes additional steps in between and sometimes a step can be skipped (Pope Francis elevated several Bishops straight to Cardinal), but it still takes decades to move through the stages.
Less chance of a scandal, if a man gets to 64 without getting in trouble chances are he hasn’t got skeletons in the closet.
Factions and splits would develop within the church.
Same reason some 35 year old political neophyte could never get the presidency.
What have they actually done?
Popes were like kings in the olden days. And they don’t want one staying in power for too long. Also they try to give the old and long tenured guys something to strive for still.
The scripture in Timothy that describes qualities for a spiritual leader includes not being a newly converted man lest he become prideful, so maybe youth is thought to have the same pitfall?
Also he has to have a long reputation within the church so a younger man couldnt have that .
It does seem sensible. If the Conclave elected Popes in their 40s, they would probably only need a new one every 30-40 years.
Instead, they prefer to put Roman Catholics through the distress of a Papal death every decade,
You do not get to the top of any job, be it corporate, government, or military, without doing time moving up the ladder, unless you are born into the position of a family business or are the creator of the business.
Because they don’t want a young guy in there that can rule for 30+ years. What if it ends up being a bad choice and he turns into a Trump-like Pope? Then they’re stuck with some evil piece of shit for way too long.
JPII was the third-longest serving Pope at 27 years.
The advanced age acts as a limit to their term. The church doesn’t want someone ruling for decades.
Feature not bug.
It means that one figure won’t, or shouldn’t anyway, dominate the Church and ideology long enough to dominate through personality and that any changes will have to prove themselves through multiple Papacies ensuring they have natural acceptance instead of being forced through and continued through one person’s arrogance.
It is a way of getting the benefits of term limits without outright having term limits. JPII kinda broke the system for lasting so long.
The purpose of the pope isn’t to serve for an incredibly long time, it shouldn’t be for any world leader really. It’s an experienced priest with many many years of service, who’s supported by the cardinals, and is knowledgable and skilled in their duties, who governs the church.
Watching Popes die is part of the charm.
You don’t technically need old men. You only need a baptized, unmarried Catholic male. So I can technically become Pope.
The reason why is that the Pope is Bishop of Rome so the ascender needs to be ordained a priest and consecrated a bishop prior to taking on the throne of Peter.
The reason why the cardinals choose a cardinal is because instead of 300 million men, you have 150 to choose from. Also, to work up the hierarchy from entering priest school to bishop takes a while.
And you need to get a ~68% majority (2/3rds plus 1) to elect a pope. Not even ice cream can get that in some places.
They gotta keep receiving until they’re 55, then they switch to being the pitcher
They don’t. We’ve had an 11-year-old pope.
Experience, you wont have it to run a multi-billion dollar enterprise with thousands of employees. it’s also a position that your faux pas carry major consequences, so you cant have someone in there who cannot steer the ship without causing disruptions