OK, I accept that this will be derailed within the first 8 posts to see who can have the funniest name but I do intend for this to be serious.
If the Vatican calls you up and tells you that you’re the new Pope (if female assume they decided to be more liberal, if non-Catholic assume that you’re willing to convert to get the gig). What papal name would you pick and why.
I would probably go with Leo XIV because of all the recent popes, I admire Leo XIII the most and would try to emulate him. He saw a need to modernize Catholicism and I think the Christianity should be a progressive and service-oriented religion. I also think that any religion should occassionally re-examine its place in the world and decide what tenents such as homosexuality, abortion or women in the ministry should change and which are absolutely vital to keep .
However, there’s an outside chance I would go with Pope Cadwallader. It’s a saint’s name so yes there is a real Saint Cad. There’s something about NOT going with a really recent name that appeals to me.
I’d pick Julian. for the English mystic and anchoress. So I’d be Julian I.
There have been male popes named Julius, this would be a feminine form of that name I guess.
There was a fictional Pope by that name, in a novel I read many years ago. It was The Vicar of Christ, by Francis Murphy. A very good book, IMHO, but with a bittersweet ending.
Pope Linus II. The original Pope Linus is a victim of Second Guy Syndrome, like Buzz Aldrin and John Adams, and it’s time somebody gave him some props. Plus of course it would be a tribute to Linus Van Pelt.
Quite seriously, I would choose Sylvester. I guess Sylvester IV or maybe V (there was an antipope Sylvester IV). The reason is that Sylvester II (996-1003) helped reintroduce learning into the west. He went to a Muslim academy in Spain (“disguised as an Arab” in one account I read) and learned all about the mathematics and science in the Arab world, much of it from the Greeks, having been destroyed in Europe during the dark ages. People like him led after a long time to the Renaissance. And for that I would honor him.
