# What are the requirements for being Pope? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 16, 2007, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-requirements-for-being-pope/408243 "2007-06-16T12:51:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2007, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-requirements-for-being-pope/408243/21 "2007-06-17T03:49:11Z")
IIRC, voting for a new pope is considered Plan B. Before they start casting votes, the Cardinals all sit quietly for a few minutes to give God an opportunity to inspire them, the theory being that God might want some unlikely individual to be Pope who mere mortals like the Cardinals would be unaware of. So if all of them are sitting there and suddenly hear an inner voice saying “Pick Sarah Silverman” then it must be divine instruction and she’s the one. Upon further investigation I see that choosing a Pope by acclamation is no longer a possibility. Pope John Paul II abolished the practice in 1996. Presumedly he was concerned God might choose the wrong candidate. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2007, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-requirements-for-being-pope/408243/22 "2007-06-17T04:42:13Z")
[QUOTE=Little Nemo] Upon further investigation I see that choosing a Pope by acclamation is no longer a possibility. Pope John Paul II abolished the practice in 1996. Presumedly he was concerned God might choose the wrong candidate. [/QUOTE] Pope John Paul II set out his reasons for altering the papal electoral methods pretty clearly in the the foreword to _Universi Dominici Gregis_. The method of acclamation \*quasi ex inspiratione \* was abolished because he considered it: > [@](#): > > no longer an apt means of interpreting the thought of an electoral college so great in number and so diverse in origin. The method of election \*per compromissum \* was abolished: > [@](#): > > not only because of the difficulty of the procedure, evident from the unwieldy accumulation of rules issued in the past, but also because by its very nature it tends to lessen the responsibility of the individual electors who, in this case, would not be required to express their choice personally. He left the secret ballot method as the only option because: > [@](#): > > this form offers the greatest guarantee of clarity, straightforwardness, simplicity, openness and, above all, an effective and fruitful participation on the part of the Cardinals who, individually and as a group, are called to make up the assembly which elects the Successor of Peter. ---
**Author:** ![flodnak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/838e76/32.png) [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2007, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-requirements-for-being-pope/408243/23 "2007-06-17T06:23:17Z")
[QUOTE=Cunctator] Being Pope requires being a bishop. Only males can be ordained bishops (or priests or deacons) in the Catholic church. So yes, the Pope must be male. [/QUOTE] Also, if the man chosen to be Pope is a layman, he must be free of any impediment to becoming a priest. The most obvious impediment is marriage, so he has to be a bachelor or a widower. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2007, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-requirements-for-being-pope/408243/24 "2007-06-17T11:24:10Z")
[QUOTE=alphaboi867] Joan was a myth. [/QUOTE] Hence the inverted commas. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2007, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-requirements-for-being-pope/408243/25 "2007-06-17T11:37:08Z")
Slight hijack, but I heard a rather touching quotation from Pope John Paul II the other day. It was words to the effect that he would sometimes lie in bed wrestling with a moral or theological issue, and think "oh dear, I don’t know what to do about this… “I know! Tomorrow I’ll go and discuss it with the Pope, and that will make it better.” Then with a start, he would remember that he _was_ the Pope, and feel very alone. I’m still vehemently anti his and his church’s stance on many issues, but the man certainly had humility. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2007, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-requirements-for-being-pope/408243/26 "2007-06-17T12:16:27Z")
[QUOTE=flodnak] Also, if the man chosen to be Pope is a layman, he must be free of any impediment to becoming a priest. The most obvious impediment is marriage, so he has to be a bachelor or a widower. [/QUOTE] This is gonna be an awkward statement. First, let me note that yes, I am Episcopalian (=Anglican in America), but I’ve always been fascinated by the organized complexus of minutiae that goes to make up Catholic doctrine and praxis. That said, what follows is, TTBOMK, what the Catholic Church teaches-- not represented as my own beliefs, nor some objectively true definition of the world, but their own belief system, so far as I understand it. That said, _per ecclesiam catholicam_ it is not possible to ordain a woman priest or bishop. That is, you can go through the motions of doing so (illicitly, of course) but it will not be a valid action. On that metaphysical plane where priests are indelibly marked with the sign of their priesthood, the woman would remain unmarked. Even more so would this be true for the episcopacy and the higher levels of Catholic hierarchy. (The diaconate is specifically excluded from this discussion – the majority view of theologians is that the same thing applies as in an attempted ordination to the priesthood: not a valid action, while a minority of theologians think that Scriptural references to deaconesses mean that it’s possible, just not done. Present teaching of the Magisterium is that women may not be ordained deacons – as opposed to saying that they **cannot** , on which it has not as yet ruled AFAIK.) Hence no woman can ever become Pope – because the Pope is first and foremost the chief bishop of the Church, and a woman cannot become a bishop. Now, having gone through all that gyration to answer the “potential woman pope” question and in so doing to illustrate something Catholic doctrine considers an impossibility, turn to the married clergy question. Clerical celibacy is a Law of the Church – and specifically of the Latin Rite. Eastern Rite married men can be and are regularly ordained; the Pope can dispense from the rule in the Latin Rite and on occasion does. The rule could be changed today if the Holy Spirit led the Pope to decide to do so, or if the bishops in General Council so voted. There have been married popes, starting with Peter (whose wife is never mentioned in the Bible, but whose mother-in-law is). There is even a case or two of legitimate father-and-son papacies, where both were elected pope at different times. So being a married man would not be a **bar** to becoming Pope; the College of Cardinals would simply have to be led to the conclusion that this person is the right candidate for Pope anyway. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-requirements-for-being-pope/408243/27 "2007-06-18T03:19:47Z")
[QUOTE=Cunctator] I think you’re right - if the married man in question were already an ordained priest (e.g. an Anglican convert who had been re-ordained). Extremely unlikely but still theoretically possible… [/QUOTE] Or a married priest from an Eastern Rite church. Has there ever even been a Pope from an Eastern Rite church? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-requirements-for-being-pope/408243/28 "2007-06-18T09:57:41Z")
[QUOTE=alphaboi867] Or a married priest from an Eastern Rite church. Has there ever even been a Pope from an Eastern Rite church? 😕 [/QUOTE] Well, Simon bar Jonah was (a) possessed of a mother-in-law, which implies a wife as well, and (b) first Patriarch of Antioch prior to becoming Bishop of Rome. I think St. Peter would definitely qualify! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-requirements-for-being-pope/408243/29 "2007-06-18T10:06:46Z")
[QUOTE=Polycarp] Well, Simon bar Jonah was (a) possessed of a mother-in-law, which implies a wife as well, and (b) first Patriarch of Antioch prior to becoming Bishop of Rome. I think St. Peter would definitely qualify! 😛 [/QUOTE] Yeah, but we’re here to fight ignorance, not confuse those who ask… at the time, there was no such thing as the “Eastern” and “Latin” rites! ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-requirements-for-being-pope/408243/30 "2007-06-18T19:31:25Z")
[QUOTE=Polycarp] Well, Simon bar Jonah was (a) possessed of a mother-in-law, which implies a wife as well, and (b) first Patriarch of Antioch prior to becoming Bishop of Rome. I think St. Peter would definitely qualify! 😛 [/QUOTE] Perhaps his wife was already dead. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-requirements-for-being-pope/408243/31 "2007-06-18T19:55:42Z")
[QUOTE=alphaboi867] Or a married priest from an Eastern Rite church. Has there ever even been a Pope from an Eastern Rite church? 😕 [/QUOTE] Not that I know of. The closest recently has probably been Cardinal Agagianian, who got a bunch of votes in the conclave in 1958. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-requirements-for-being-pope/408243/32 "2007-06-18T20:02:45Z")
I will add that, while in the Eastern Rite churches, a married man can be ordained a priest, Eastern Rite bishops are still required to be celibate. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-requirements-for-being-pope/408243/33 "2007-06-18T21:55:54Z")
Celibate good times, COME ON! He’s a celibate man Well there’s a conclave going on right here Of celibates and bishops of the year Well they’ll be voting And laughing, too Choosing a pope, forgiving sins anew Celibate good times, COME ON! ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-requirements-for-being-pope/408243/34 "2007-06-18T22:18:10Z")
[QUOTE=Captain Amazing] I will add that, while in the Eastern Rite churches, a married man can be ordained a priest, Eastern Rite bishops are still required to be celibate. [/QUOTE] Actually, I suspect strongly that you’re wrong here. There are one or two Eastern Rite Catholic Dopers; they may be able to give a definite answer on this. But **presuming** that Eastern Catholic prelates follow the same rules as Eastern Orthodox, a married bishop would not be against canon law but rather deep-seated custom. Like this: clergy may be married or celibate; the majority of the celibate live under monastic vows, and are regarded as somewhat more holy and scholarly than their non-monastic counterparts. Nearly always, a bishop is chosen from among the monastic priests, who are of course celibate by their monastic vows. But the only thing requiring this is longstanding custom. There is a cite somewhere of a widower Orthodox priest chosen to be a new bishop, whose son attended his enthronement as a bishop, during the 20th century. I believe the canons governing Eastern Rite Catholic bishops would be much the same as what are used in the Eastern Orthodox Churches; hence, a married bishop is not impossible, just highly unlikely. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-requirements-for-being-pope/408243/35 "2007-06-18T22:44:23Z")
[QUOTE=astorian] Interestingly, in Dante’s “Inferno,” Celestine is shown in Hell, for being a coward who shirked his duty. [/QUOTE] Doesn’t that passage make more sense if the person in qestion is assumed to be Pontius Pilate rather than Celestine? Sorry for the hijack. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-requirements-for-being-pope/408243/36 "2007-06-19T13:59:44Z")
[QUOTE=NoClueBoy] Celibate good times, COME ON! [/QUOTE] 😛 Welcome to my world. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-requirements-for-being-pope/408243/37 "2007-06-19T14:09:48Z")
> [@](#): > > Quote: > Originally Posted by Quartz > Does the Pope actually have to be male? Tradition and ‘Pope Joan’ aside, could the College of Cardinals elect a woman? > > Joan was a myth. The Thertainly Wath! (Although by the time she gave birth during a procession, she presumably wasn’t anymore.) (D&R) ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-requirements-for-being-pope/408243/38 "2007-06-19T22:07:12Z")
[QUOTE=Cunctator] If the man in question were a married layman it might require some deft legal manoeuvring though. Under canon 1042(1) of the (Latin Rite) Code of Canon Law a man who has a wife is “simply impeded” from receiving orders (except the permanent diaconate). This simple impediment can be dispensed under Canon 1047(2)(3)…but only by the Apostolic See. So you’d need a reigning Pope to allow the ordination of a married man…which you wouldn’t have if the man under consideration was being ordained in order to become Pope. [/QUOTE] Yes, but this could happen: Pope dispenses a Catholic married man to become a priest, then Pope dies, and said married man is elected Pope. ---
**Author:** ![ASAKMOTSD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/919ad9/32.png) [@ASAKMOTSD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASAKMOTSD)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2007, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-requirements-for-being-pope/408243/39 "2007-06-20T00:38:19Z")
[QUOTE=NoClueBoy] Pretty sure you have to be Catholic. [/QUOTE] Shoot! That is probably why I did not win despite my well-funded campaign! :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2007, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-requirements-for-being-pope/408243/40 "2007-06-20T04:03:34Z")
> [@](#): > > This simple impediment can be dispensed under Canon 1047(2)(3)…but only by the Apostolic See. So you’d need a reigning Pope to allow the ordination of a married man…which you wouldn’t have if the man under consideration was being ordained in order to become Pope. And I’m not sure what degree of authority the College of Cardinals would have in such a situation to alter the canon law. I _think_ that, durring a papal interregnum, the College of Cardinals is considered to hold the Earthly authority of the Apostolic See. But don’t quote me on that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-requirements-for-being-pope/408243.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-requirements-for-being-pope/408243.md?page=3)