What name will the next Pope choose?

Leroy is an old Nigerian name eh?
I vote for Felix.

Oh gobear you just ain’t right. :wink:

John XXIII was a surprising choice since it had been several centuries since John XXII and the past Pope Johns had been a rather undistinguished lot.

Cardinal Arinze (the Nigerian) is very well liked and not the pawn of any faction, so far as I can tell. He may very well be the compromise choice. And I have a hunch his name choice, if he is elected, will be symbolic of the outreach, especially to the Third World, of the Catholic Church, with a lot of the Italocentric traditional institutions abolished or greatly remodeled under him.

To endear himself to a new generation of catholics, how about:

Pope Bob Square Pants I

Who lives at the Vatican in Italy? Pope Bob Square Pants!

I like Pope Sisinnius. He was pope for a three weeks in 708.

Come to think of it Sisinnius would be a good name for a prog-rock band.

Pope Bernie I

Wasn’t Sisinnius a Phil Collins’ song?

Pope Batman?

(I’m already going to hell, what with eating meat on fridays, not going to church, and having premarital sex, so yeah, add this one to my tab.)

Reviewing the list o’ popes

There was a Saint Cletus?

It seems there have been four Popes named Honorius, the last one about 800 years ago. It seems a good enough name…kinda. :smiley:

The Celestines don’t seem to have turned out so well, in history’s eyes. (like the last one, who preferred living in a cave)

How about Pope Norton?

Well, then we’d have a pope who understands the pompatus of love.

:smiley:

I’m not a Catholic, so I’m not worried about burning in Hell.

Blasphemous. Maybe for a Discordian Pope…

I don’t know. I don’t know enough about the Catholic tradition to venture a guess. I just hope that the reasons for the choice of name are more spiritual in nature, as opposed to more temporal political ones. I felt like a few suggestions were based upon a politically correct agenda.

The reasons for naming him Leo were not bad. Also he’ll be the Pope when the Mayan calendar runs out in 2012, so maybe he should be named Peter, so we can align all the apocalyptic prophecies. :wink:

Erek

There was a 625-year gap between Pope Johns. John XXII died in 1334 and John XXIII was crowned in 1959.

Marcellus and Julius have been out of commission since 1555. I like Calixtus as a name. If I had a son, I’d name him Calixtus.

I’m hoping for Teilhard I.

OTOH, I wonder what the reaction would be if he took the name Urban - in honor of Urban II?

Adope.

How about John Paul II Jr. ?

And a puff of white smoke goes up for:

Pope Peil (pronounced Popeel), history’s first “pocket fisher of men.”

Which translates as “Lucky.” Pope Lucky! There’s an auspicious name! :smiley:

:eek: Urban II was the pope who called the First Crusade! I think we know what the “reaction would be” to that, at least from the Islamic world!

I think anything but John Paul III. JP II is one tough act to follow. Why make it tougher by choosing the same name? Especially since the dearly departed is going to be known as John Paul the Great. Would you want to be John Paul the Lesser? I think either Paul VII or John XXIV.