Just an urban legend.
It would be interesting to know what the average length of time is that popes have held the office. That would be excluding things like anti-popes and the three year conclave. I recall the news of the death of Pope Paul VI and then, just over a month later, Pope John Paul I. Talk about a short reign.
oops, bad math
Yeah, isn’t there a Cecil Adams article on it?
But thanks to @Happy_Lendervedder’s link we now know that South Korean actress Kim-Sae Ron died at home leaving 76 points on the Board.
Tells you how long each one was Pope.
This one tells you how long they reigned, ranked:
It’s Pius IX in terms of ones we are sure existed and have accurate length of time serving. Peter, the first pope. is apparently even longer, but who knows how long he reigned and if he had any idea he was pope?
I looked at that article and in the reference section I saw a link for Urban VIII. I actually knew his birth name(he passed in 1644) as I have been a fan of Eric Flint’s Ring of Fire series and he featured significantly in the later books.
All hail Pope Lando! He wasn’t pope for very long, but he could pilot the Millennium Falcon almost as well as Han Solo could!
Paging Dr. Edison.
Yrjö Kukkapuro is reclining permanently now.
Indeed it was suicide for those who suspected, but were not sure. Police confirmed that is what happened. Poor girl.
As an avid reader of the Wikipedia obits, whenever a Korean name appears it’s probably a suicide under age 30
When Paul VI died, I had a paper route, and opened up my bundle one day to the headline that the pope had died. I asked my mother what a pope was.
The next 800,000 years, nothing was on TV except for smoke coming up from some building in Italy, and documentaries about past popes, and Italian architecture. At least when it is the late 70s, and you don’t have cable.
They finally picked a new pope, and TV got back to normal.
A month later, I’m opening my papers again…
Man, what a pain. Reminds me of the Mormon church, who I believe at one point were frequently picking these 80+ year old guys to lead the church…then having to replace them really quickly.
I remember on Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update, Bill Murray started to read a headline: “Cardinals gather in Rome to elect new Pope – HEY THIS STORY’S A MONTH OLD!”
IIRC Brezhnev/Andropov/Chernenko was Death pitching an immaculate inning
Those were the times! Wouldn’t mind a rerun with the current cast.
How 'bout an American remake? Seems to be all the rage these days.