[moderator note]
Pay attention to what forum you are in. This is not appropriate for GQ.
[/moderator note]
The wikipedia article on reign names has some good info on this issue.
According to their article, the practice of a papal reign name was started when Mercurio decided his baptismal name (honoring the roman god Mercury) would not be appropriate for the Pope.
Wikipedia has some good information in their article on Papal names. Papal name - Wikipedia
According to them, the practice of a papal reign name was started when Mercurio decided his baptismal name (honoring the roman god Mercury) would not be appropriate for the pope.
Even as a priest, bishop, or cardinal, he’s already taken another name, so his birth name has already been replaced.
Uhhh… no. What exactly are you talking about?
Archbishop Timothy Cardinal Dolan has the same birth name as he had since birth: Timothy Dolan. ‘Archbishop’ is the name of an office he occupies. And ‘Cardinal’ is an honorific title entitling him to vote for the next pope.
Unless you think that President Barack Obama has replaced his name with ‘President.’
My point is that it should be less so. It wasn’t that way for many centuries in the early church. And Vatican Council II put forth a vision of a more collegial rule between the pope and the world’s bishops, albeit without actually diminishing any of the real and absolute authority the modern popes wield.
Checking for testes was a myth. 6 Famous Things From History That Didn't Actually Exist | Cracked.com (jump to #1)
Yes, the pope can make and break any human-made law he wishes on the spot and there is no recourse. As for the popes breaking tradition… you mean like announcing you’re going to retire rather than die in office? That’ll never happen!!
Pardon me. Depending on their order, some priests have already taken another name when ordained. OK??
Well, you made it sound like they all do or it’s common; when, in fact, as you say, some priests from some religious orders have a name other than their given name, but even then, they took the other name upon joining the order as a brother, not for ordination. And in areas of the world where a convert may have a name of a Pagan god or a name offensive to the Christian faith they take a new name, but even then, they change their name at baptism, not ordination.
What you’re thinking of was more common a century ago, and is pretty much no longer done. The Papacy is really the last holdout where upon ordination/installation a person with a perfectly fine Christian name is expected to take an entirely different Christian name.
(Additionally, as part of Catholic trivia: It is in Canon Law and in the Ritual for Confirmation, that a Catholic youth who is being confirmed should continue to use their baptismal name (which is usually their given and secular name nowadays) for confirmation rather than the name of a saint – though, taking a new name is still allowed. And before anyone says that can’t be true because they were forced to take a new name, I can only say, sorry, your director of religious ed. was misinformed. The new norm is: one baptismal name that you use for life. So, popes, get with the program.)
Fair enough. I don’t agree with you, though.
I took a Confirmation name (confirmed 1994), but it didn’t effect my legal name. (sorry if this is what you meant)
The Pope happens to be a monarch as head of the Vatican States, but that’s not the gist of the job. The papacy existed before there were any Vatican States and existed in the period between the unification of Italy and the reinstatement of the Vatican States.
I chose to have my baptismal name as my confirmation name, but I was the only one in my group of about 60 to do so. It’s also still relatively common for nuns and monks to choose a new name to reflect that when they join their community they are leaving behind the family into which they were born for the family of the monastery. Like confirmation and community names, Popes’ regnal names do not supersede baptismal names: they’re used in different contexts.
ETA: can we make “infallibility” a banned word or something? It gets tossed about so often (and always wrongly) that I won’t be surprised to see it come up in a thread about recipes for crepes.
Greetings good people,
As a complete aside, a new Pope, if he’d been raised to a Cardinal via say the Benedictines, might be on his second given name already. As a monk/nun you take a religious name different to that on your Birth Certificate, then as a Pope a third.
Makes me wonder what sort of multi personality disorder John Paul II suffered from…
Peter
It wasn’t that bad. Before he was Karol Józef Wojtyła, John Paul was named George Ringo…
nm
This.
I would bet nickels to Michelangelos that every cardinal has his papal name chosen while he’s being fitted for his first red robes, and plays out little scenes of leading Easter mass from the balcony as His Holiness [Insert Name] [Insert Number].
ETA: I wonder if some of them have chosen the same name and will sulk when Alberto announces it as his.
The only name that would be less likely is Jesus.
Two quick questions:
I assume there a list of approved names the new pope can chose from. Have all the names been used, or is there a name or two floating around that haven’t been used yet for whatever reason?
What are the rules on adding a new name to the list? For example, Pope John Paul I combined two names. Could he have chosen any two names, like Benedict and Leo? Or since John Paul has been used, could he add a third name to that (i.e. Pope John Paul Leo?). There must be a process…
According to Wikipedia, this is correct, at least according to today’s standards. “Immediately after a new pope is elected, and accepts the election, he is asked, “By what name shall you be called?” The new Pope chooses the name by which he will be known from that point on. The senior Cardinal Deacon, or Cardinal Protodeacon, then appears on the balcony of Saint Peter’s to proclaim the new Pope, informing the world of the man elected Pope, and under which name he would be known during his reign.”
This is something that I was curious about also, and apparently using your baptismal name is within the rules… And THIS fact is why I cannot find a list of acceptable names for a new Pope. The list does not exist. Theoretically, the new pope can call himself his given name, which might sound odd to our ears because it hasn’t been done for quite a while. But if the pope was baptized “Barney” he could become Pope Barney.
Based on my limited research and reading, there is no formal naming approval procedure. He chooses the name, and that’s that.
I am not catholic, so can someone explain to me the issue with the name “Peter”? I’m sure it is common knowledge, but I haven’t read anything thus far on it.
On the names I’ve read thus far, if it was me that was becoming the me Pope, I’d choose Lando. Pope Lando has a Star Wars ring to it, don’t you think? And Family Guy too!
There is no process and no list. There is no teaching, encyclical, letter, or policy statement on this issue except to say that each newly elected Pope is asked and then he chooses whatever he wants.
The Pope is already called familiarly, ‘Peter’ because he occupies the Chair (throne) of Peter. When Leo the Great sent the Eastern Bishops his great Tome, helping to smooth the Christological debates of the East, it was acclaimed “Peter has spoken!”
So, taking the name Peter would be a hugely ballsy move. It would signal, “Watch out, world, I have big bold plans that will shake you up but you’re gonna accept it 'cause I have the Chair of Peter, dammit, and I’m gonna use it!”