# How many Popes have served in your lifetime
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-popes-have-served-in-your-lifetime/668107
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [September 5, 2013, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-popes-have-served-in-your-lifetime/668107 "2013-09-05T20:16:51Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2013, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-popes-have-served-in-your-lifetime/668107/1 "2013-09-05T20:16:51Z")
Looking at the POTUS thread, thought Pope might be fun. For me it is:
Paul VI
John Paul I
John Paul II
Benedict XVI
Francis
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### Author:  [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2013, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-popes-have-served-in-your-lifetime/668107/2 "2013-09-05T20:39:35Z")
I was born in 1961, so I’ve lived through…
John the 23rd (I don’t remember him at all)
Paul the 6th
John Paul the 1st
John Paul the 2nd
Benedict the 16th
Francis the 1st
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### Author:  [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2013, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-popes-have-served-in-your-lifetime/668107/3 "2013-09-05T20:44:31Z")
Too many.
[QUOTE=Voltaire]
Those damned Jesuits, when I was a boy, buggered me to such a
degree that I shall never get over it as long as I live.
[/QUOTE]
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### Author:  [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2013, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-popes-have-served-in-your-lifetime/668107/4 "2013-09-05T20:51:38Z")
John XXIII
Paul VI
John Paul I
John Paul II
Benedict XVI
Francis
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### Author:  [@Asympotically\_fat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asympotically_fat)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2013, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-popes-have-served-in-your-lifetime/668107/5 "2013-09-05T20:54:35Z")
JPII
Benedict XVI
Francis
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### Author:  [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2013, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-popes-have-served-in-your-lifetime/668107/6 "2013-09-05T21:05:03Z")
Seven – I was born when Pius XII was Bishop of Rome.
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### Author:  [@SandyHook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SandyHook)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2013, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-popes-have-served-in-your-lifetime/668107/7 "2013-09-05T21:05:26Z")
Born in 1947, so:
Pius XII
John XXII
Paul the VI
John Paul the 1st
John Paul the II
Benedict the XVI
Francis the 1st
And just because I mentioned it in the POTUS thread, my great-grandmother, who I can just barely remember (1847 - 1952) has:
Pius IX
Leo XIII
Pius X
Benedict XV
Pius XI
Pius XII
Not as many as I thought it would be. But the first two had rather long terms in office, almost 57 years between them.
In fact I’ve seen more Popes than she did, 7 to 6. Guess they don’t make them like they used to.
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### Author:  [@chizzuk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chizzuk)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2013, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-popes-have-served-in-your-lifetime/668107/8 "2013-09-05T22:17:38Z")
Well, John Paul II had been Pope for 9 years by the time I was born and died when I was 17, and there have only been two guys after him, so not many. I’m not sure it ever really crossed my mind that popes died, or how they went about getting a new one, until well into my teens. JPII was just. . .always there.
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### Author:  [@Atomic\_Alex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Alex)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2013, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-popes-have-served-in-your-lifetime/668107/9 "2013-09-05T22:26:48Z")
I was born during the reign of John Paul I, so technically four but it only seems like three.
John Paul II was Pope for so long it was distinctly odd to think that there could actually be a Pope who wasn’t him, a bit like how its strange to think of a different British Queen than the current monarch, or actually having a King for that matter.
On a sidenote, my first thought on hearing about Benedict XVI’s decision, “Popes can resign?!?”, when I first saw the large banner and headline on the BBC website I thought he’d vacated the seat of Peter in the conventional manner.
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### Author:  [@KermitTheFrig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KermitTheFrig)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2013, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-popes-have-served-in-your-lifetime/668107/10 "2013-09-06T00:56:40Z")
Seven. Pius XII through Francis.
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### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2013, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-popes-have-served-in-your-lifetime/668107/11 "2013-09-06T01:37:52Z")
> [@KermitTheFrig](#):
>
> Seven. Pius XII through Francis.
Ditto. Not that they were any more relevant to my life than all the rulers of Sweden in my lifetime…
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2013, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-popes-have-served-in-your-lifetime/668107/12 "2013-09-06T01:59:50Z")
Pius XII et. al.
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### Author:  [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2013, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-popes-have-served-in-your-lifetime/668107/13 "2013-09-06T02:11:26Z")
Three.
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### Author:  [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2013, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-popes-have-served-in-your-lifetime/668107/14 "2013-09-06T02:24:22Z")
> [@Giles](#):
>
> Seven – I was born when Pius XII was Bishop of Rome.
Same here.
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### Author:  [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2013, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-popes-have-served-in-your-lifetime/668107/15 "2013-09-06T02:26:22Z")
> [@etv78](#):
>
> Looking at the POTUS thread, thought Pope might be fun. For me it is:
>
> Paul VI
> John Paul I
> John Paul II
> Benedict XVI
> Francis
Ditto
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### Author:  [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2013, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-popes-have-served-in-your-lifetime/668107/16 "2013-09-06T02:28:07Z")
Paul VI
John Paul I
John Paul II
Benedict XVI
Francis
Same as the OP and a few others.
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### Author:  [@Pai325](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pai325)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2013, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-popes-have-served-in-your-lifetime/668107/17 "2013-09-06T02:40:06Z")
Pius XII through Francis.
So seven Popes, twelve Presidents, but only two Kings/Queens of the UK.
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### Author:  [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2013, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-popes-have-served-in-your-lifetime/668107/18 "2013-09-06T03:12:26Z")
Another member of the ‘Five Pope Club’ here.
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### Author:  [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2013, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-popes-have-served-in-your-lifetime/668107/19 "2013-09-06T14:38:08Z")
> [@Suburban\_Plankton](#):
>
> Another member of the ‘Five Pope Club’ here.
yep
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### Author:  [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2013, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-popes-have-served-in-your-lifetime/668107/20 "2013-09-06T15:03:42Z")
> [@Bricker](#):
>
> John XXIII
> Paul VI
> John Paul I
> John Paul II
> Benedict XVI
> Francis
+1, though I couldn’t have told you anything about 'em before JP I.
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