Cecil, been reading and relying on you for far too many years (for both of us).
Just a quick question, and sorry to drag this chestnut out of the SD vault – but I was always taught by the various monks/nuns/priests I’ve been educated by (so well, I’m now “fallen away”…) that any male Catholic can be pope, and that being a priest – and thus subject to celibacy rules – doesn’t apply to the Papacy. True? Garbage?
Frightening indeed when you are more reliable than ‘Holy Mother Church’.
Two relevant SD items: Was there once a female pope? and How does one become Pope? The second of these gives the first step to becoming Pope as being entering the priesthood. I don’t think there’s ever been a Pope who wasn’t a priest first.
In principle, the College of Cardinals could in fact choose any male Catholic. If they did so, though, that man would be immediately ordained a deacon, priest, and bishop, and then be named Pope. There are a few rare exceptions to the rule against married priests; presumably, if we’re in such a wild hypothetical that the cardinals all feel inspired to pick a previously-lay man, they would also waive the celibacy requirement.
Of course, this has never actually happened with the papacy, but IIRC, St. Augustin was a layman at the time he was chosen to be bishop of Hippo, and went through a similar whirlwind ordination process. It’s also worth noting that Augustin was previously married, but the marriage was to a non-Christian, and considered voided by the Church.
Ummm… No. Augustine had been a priest for four years, and had never been married (though he had had a couple of mistresses). But (and more to the point) St. Fabian is said to have been a layman before his election, and Pelagius I (no connection with the Pelagius for whom the Pelagian heresy is named) was only a deacon. However, ordination per saltum (“by leaping”), that is, directly becoming a priest without being a deacon, or becoming a bishop without being a priest, is now considered valid, but unacceptable.
Of course, since the pope is, by definition, the bishop of Rome, there is no real problem with a non-bishop being chosen, except on the practical ground that a non-bishop would not have the administrative experience a pope really should have.
The celibacy thing is understood by the Roman Catholic Church to be a simple human rule, not something commanded by God. Looking at the level of alcoholism among the wives of Protestant clergy, one can see the point.