How does one advance to the Papacy?

I mean, I understand the basic hierarchy (priests, bishops, archbishops, cardinals, etc.), and how the election in the College of Cardinals works. I’m wondering more about what are the criteria for advancement along the way? It’s not hard to figure out how someone gets promoted in a corporation, or, say, minor league baseball, but what marks someone as a comer within the Roman Catholic Church? Are there some standard metrics involved, or is more about meeting an educational benchmark, being from the right part(s) of the world, making the right friends among your superiors, and maybe getting some favorable press along the way?

Uh, need answer fast.

It’s all politics, same as any other human organization. The bishop is not chosen because he’s considered the holiest priest in the diocese, or the wisest, or the most graced by God. He’s chosen because he has good organizational skills, and has connections with the right people, and works hard, and can get people to support him.

This is even more true for all of the levels above bishop. There are a few liturgical differences between bishops and ordinary priests: Most notably, a bishop can ordain other priests or bishops. Between the different levels of bishops, though, it’s all just administrative. Any sacrament that the Pope can perform, your local bishop can also perform.

CPG Grey has a good video about how to become pope. It is about 5 minutes long. He goes into depth about the process of becoming a bishop. A Phd in theology or the equivalent and a big interview process.

Recent popes have been highly educated and multinlingual too. I would expect that these days you would need to have a scholarly background to advance high up the chain.

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CPG Grey has a good video about how to become pope. It is about 5 minutes long. He goes into depth about the process of becoming a bishop. A Phd in theology or the equivalent and a big interview process.

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I wish he would update it (some people add annotations to the existing video). The last Pope picked a new name and you can be married and non-celibate and become a priest, by being Eastern Rite, converting from a religion like Anglicanism, or being previously married (that last one is a rare exception). A lot of this is on a case-by-case basis, and not really doctrine so much as practice. Generally this may however limit your potential for advancement.

And while the Pope should be celibate, some have gotten away with it.

Although they don’t publish every vote, Francis’ election (or those of most of his predecessors) wasn’t exactly a surprise. He was papabile and was reportedly the #2 candidate in 2005, ultimately encouraging his colleagues to come to a decision and pick Ratzinger.

It’s an organization like any multinational - the big guy and his inner circle promote bishops and cardinals. the higher up you get, the more involved the Vatican is in selection and promotion, rather than just your own country or region’s hierarchy. So yes, part of it is “office politics”. But even the cynical bishops and cardinals are not stupid - you don’t get that far in the organization, especially if insincere, by being a moron. They pick people who are not going to cause problems, embarrass the organization (that they know of); but even they can be fooled.

Note that Francis has been accused of turning a blind eye to Argentinian politics in the past. His story is that he worked behind the scenes to try and mitigate the torture and horrors of the Junta. So he may be a radical willing to push a different, more egalitarian agenda, but he knew when to rock the boat, how far to push, and when to keep quiet.

That’s the other thing - nobody in the current organization is likely to willingly promote clergy who are dead-set on returning to basic Christian principles - dropping all the expensive trappings, leave the fancy Cardinals’ digs and live in a one room apartment like the poor do, etc. OTOH, they do recognize that previous behaviour will be scrutinized when someone is elected pope - so they know who fits the mold and who is too worldly to pass for pope.

And yes, the person has to be a very smart individual - there are often very fine points of dogma that need decisions. They have to be smart with diplomacy, since the world is a complicated and sometimes dangerous place. They have to come across as sincere. Nowadays, then need some charisma. And so on…

In order to be appointed cardinal, you can’t differ politically and doctrinally too much from the sitting pope. In order to be elected pope by your fellow cardinals, most of whom will usually have been appointed by the same pope as you, you can’t differ too much from them. So there’s an automatic brake on how much a pope can differ from his predecessor.

Knowing what I do about the guy, I don’t think he would update for that. The stuff about being married was already true–he was just simplifying. And he said “usually” to picking a preexisting name.

He’s far more likely to list things like that on his site. (Note, that’s not a link to the errata on this video because, for some reason, the Pope one is not on his site. I’ll ask him about it in the comments to his next podcast. He notoriously does not like to respond to questions except at those times.)

In view of the recent Ben Carson rumpus, I thought a good Onion headline would be: “Controversial Vatican Official Says Muslims Are Unqualified to be Elected Pope”.

I thought I had heard once that in the various rites where priests could be married, the proviso was that bishop or higher could not be married.

In our wide-ranging catechism class back in Grade 7, it was mentioned that technically ANYONE could be elected pope, although considering that some of the duties tend to involve saying mass and performing the sacraments, it was of course impossibly unlikely that a non-priest would be selected, just as it was pretty much impossible that a non-Catholic would be elected… but the Lord (or the Holy Spirit) works in mysterious ways.

Nope. NO GIRLZ ALLOWED!

Pope Callixtus III in 1455 was the last non-priest to be chosen as pope. If a non-priest becomes pope, they will quickly fix that and ordain him and move him up the ranks to bishop.

Correct. Any baptized male is technically eligible to be selected as Pope. Canon law provides that if the selectee is not already a bishop, then upon his acceptance he is to be immediately ordained as a bishop.

Not remotely correct.

The man who became Pope Callixtus III was a priest, then the Bishop of Valencia, then a cardinal who participated in the papal election of Pope Nicholas V, his immediate predecessor as pontiff.

Giovanni di Lorenzo dé Medici, who became Pope Leo X in 1513, was not a priest prior to his election as Pope, and was in fact the last non-priest to be elected as Pope.

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Yeah, in an all boys school taught by monks, the “anyone” was automatically assumed to mean “any man”. Of course! - we weren’t that misinformed… :slight_smile:

It’s a best two-out-of-three, unless wild cardinals are squaring off for the right to advance, in which case it’s just one match.

Ignore this.
Embarrassing mistake. Always read carefully.

Actually the top speed is rather higher than that. “Although the popemobile is capable of moving at 160 mph, it normally travels at a speed of 6 mph.”

What if Jesus comes back as a poor woman in a third-world country, just to mess with people? (The last will be first, and all.)

Irrelevant.
Jesus is not the Pope. :wink: If I *own *Boeing I don’t have to be a licensed pilot.

(Besides that’s NOT how the Second Coming works…)