No, of course not. Why would they? 
I always thought that age-old question about where Popes defecate was “in the woods” 
/d&r
Which may have inspired Morris West, the novelist who wrote The Shoes of the Fisherman a few years later (1962?). It’s a fascinating look behind the scenes of the election of an Eastern Rite pope (who was at the time of his election a cardinal in pectore, that is, whose appointment was a secret to all but the just-deceased previous Pope and his top aides). The book’s a bit dated now, very heavy on the Cold War atmospherics, but still an interesting read.
Are you sure that any joke about the Pope being Catholic bears repeating?
So that’s another requirement, right?
Having no ethical problem with child molestation is clearly a requirement for being Pope.
Hmmm… over on Internet Infidels, they’re discussing the metaphysical nature of faecal matter resulting from transubstantiated bread and wine. Here, we’re discovering where Catholic bears defecate. There’s a common thread to these inquiries, and it appears to be a particularly shitty one! 
**
Hubert Cumberdale**, we try to keep the answers factual in General Questions. While there has been a fair amount of joking, this is pretty close to the line.
Gfactor GQ Moderator
It wasn’t a joke. The current pope was part of a massive coverup by the Vatican of sex offenses committed by priests, so how is that not factual?
Hubert. It wasn’t responsive to the OP. If there was truly such a requirement to be Pope, you’ll have to find it.
If you have a complaint about the Pope being part of coverup, all you have to do is start a thread in the proper forum
Even if true…
The current pope also has two hands. That doesn’t mean that it’s a requirement.
Zev Steinhardt
If there was a cardinal that publicly spoke out against the sex scandal and vowed to expunge everyone involved from the church should they became Pope, they would have absolutely no chance of ever being elected. There’s a formerly high-ranking American member of the Holy See who was removed from his position and all but excommunicated for openly criticizing the Vatican’s lack of the response to the problem.
Therefore it is a fact that the Pope and everyone in the Vatican have been required to deny, if not be in agreement with, the sex scandal as much as possible.
Again, if you have a problem with the Catholic Church et al, just start a thread in the Pit. I’m sure we’ve probably done this one to death, but knnock yourself out.
Your reply was not, IMHO, given as a factual response to the OP, nor was it poked in good fun. IMHO. We allow a certain amount of latitude in joke responses(see Bears/woods/shit), but we tend to try to limit what we call “political remarks” in General Questions.
Yours for the SDMB,
samclem GQ moderator
And, as an afterthought, you could Pit Gfactor. He’s new, and probably could use a leg up in the point count race. Thx.
I’ve had a look to see what the Code of Canon Law says.
It would not be much of a stretch to argue that a married Pope would represent an innovation.
I don’t know the full extent of any “special law”. Presumably it includes Part I of *Universi Dominici Gregis * which is titled The Powers of the College of Cardinals During the Vacancy of the Apostolic See. Even so, Part I isn’t entirely clear. There’s a very strong flavour of ‘don’t even think of doing anything that lies within the Pope’s prerogative alone’, with government of the Church “entrusted to the College of Cardinals solely for the dispatch of ordinary business and of matters which cannot be postponed” (paragraph 1). The Cardinals are specifically excluded from dealing with matters which “whether by law or by practice, come under the power of the Roman Pontiff alone or concern the norms for the election of the new Pope laid down in the present Constitution” (paragraph 2).
Yet there’s an escape clause which could be interpreted as giving the College of Cardinals plenipotentiary power for all practical purposes: “should there be a problem which, in the view of the majority of the assembled Cardinals, cannot be postponed until another time, the College of Cardinals may act according to the majority opinion” (paragraph 6).
A real case of two bob each way.
What the hell is this GFactor mod stuff!?
I demand rigid restraints with regards to philosophy and religion!
And if you keep changing up the mods, the rockers are going to feel left out.
New moderator in General Questions – GFACTOR
Way to moderate. G!
Which brings up the question: Are the requirements for being General Questions moderator more stringent than the requirements for being Pope?
(One joke that hasn’t been made yet:
What are the requirements for being Pope?
Well, you have to be able to crank out heroic couplets…)
I just posted the links in another thread, but it seems that they will also be of benefit in this one.
The Roman Catholics aren’t the only outfit with a Pope at the top. For the Christian groups, we have:
Roman Catholic
Coptic Orthodox
Greek Orthodox
For the non-Christians, we have: