Transcription
How can someone become the pope? Very simple, technically you just need to be a Catholic man. End of video. But the thing is not as simple as it seems. The Holy See did not post a job opening on LinkedIn. Getting to the top is a fairly complex process.
This is a list of the 264 popes there have been and here we have Pope Urban VI, who died in 1389. He was the last pontiff who was elected without being a cardinal. Since then, the last 64 popes were all cardinals at the time of their election, which in practice makes it an almost indispensable requirement. And those who choose the next pope are the cardinals, so it is almost certain that they will select one of their own.
So what is the path to becoming a pope? First of all, you need to be one of the 50.3% of the world's population that was born male. And then you must become a Catholic. That is, when you have received the three sacraments of Christian initiation, which are baptism, eucharist, also known as communion, and confirmation. And if you haven't done step three, I doubt you'll embark on the next journey, which begins with becoming a priest. And for that you will need to study, generally two years of philosophy and three years of theology. Even depending on the diocese, you may need a previous year of high school and another year after studying until you receive the second degree of the priestly order. In addition to this, you must meet other requirements, such as celibacy.
But this is just the beginning. Being a priest and having a church is nothing special; there are a total of 407,000 priests worldwide. So then you decide to ascend to bishop. But it is a quite complicated process, so much so that it has an extensive article on Wikipedia, which obviously you are not going to read. So I'll summarize it for you: you need to be 35 years of age or older, and have worked for at least 5 years as a priest. You must have a good reputation, a firm faith, good morals and piety. And finally, you will usually need a doctorate in Sacred Scripture, Theology or Canon Law.
Once you meet the requirements, you will have to wait for a bishop position to become available, since there are not many. If there are 407,000 priests, there are only 5,300 bishops in the entire world. In Spain, for example, there are only 50 diocesan bishops and 16 archbishops. To continue on your path, a bishop will have to resign from his position or reach 75 years of age or die.
And here comes the even trickier part. You cannot formally apply to be a bishop. They have to name you. But who is in charge of this? Lots of people. The bishops of the nearest localities continually prepare a list of possible candidates, which they update at least once every three years. When a vacancy opens, the bishops will then pass their list to the apostolic nuncio, who is a representative of the Holy See in foreign countries, as if he were an ambassador. He will be in charge of reviewing the list and will begin to investigate the candidates, consulting various sources, such as the bishop who is leaving, other bishops in the region and the clergy. When you are done with your research, you will select three final candidates and send these suggestions along with your research to the dicastery for bishops in Vatican City. The dicastery may make further inquiries, request additional information or occasionally request a new list of candidates. And once they are clear about who should be the bishop, the dicastery makes its recommendation to the pope, who is the one who makes the final decision. If you don't like the candidate, you will have to look for one again, but if the pope is happy with the recommendation, congratulations, you are now a bishop.
However, going from a church to a cathedral is still not enough for you, and you decide to continue rising until you become a cardinal. But this won't really be a promotion, since cardinals are almost always bishops; they just have more important roles, such as choosing the new pope. Although for this, only the youngest cardinals will be able to do it, that is, those who are less than 80 years old. If there are 5,300 bishops around the world, think that there are only 237 cardinals. To get this far, you need to wait for the current pope to see your efforts, recognize them as spiritually significant, and determine that you should be a cardinal by the will of God. Of the 237 current cardinals, there are only 46 from Spanish-speaking countries, distributed as follows, with Spain at the head, followed by Argentina and Mexico. This shows how really difficult it will be to become a cardinal.
And there is still the final step, becoming a pope. To do this, you will have to wait for one to die or for one to retire, although this rarely happens. And then the next elections will begin. Of the 237 cardinals, only 127 are of age to elect the next pope, so they will meet in a process called a conclave. For this, they meet inside the Sistine Chapel, with the doors closed and guarded by the Swiss Guard. And then the shielding against leaks begins. Detectors are used to look for traces of any hidden microphones. Newspapers, radio and television are prohibited. The Wi-Fi is completely blocked and wireless signal jammers are also deployed to prevent any form of electronic communication with the cardinal electors.
Once everything is correct, voting begins. Each day, a maximum of 4 votes will take place, 2 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. For a pope to be elected, a minimum majority of two-thirds must be reached. If no result is obtained after 3 days of voting, the process is suspended for one day. There will be 7 votes and a day of rest, and again 7 votes and a day of rest. From then on, only the two names that obtained the most votes in the last vote will be able to be elected in a second round, which will still require a two-thirds majority. And these two finalists then lose their right to vote. And how long can the process last? Until there is a winner, however long it lasts. The longest conclave was the one that lasted three years between 1268 and 1271, which ended with the victory of Pope Gregory. In the conclaves of the last 200 years, the majority have lasted between 2 and 5 days, and we have to go back to 1831 to find conclaves that lasted more than a month.
And then, what happens during the weeks, months or years in which there is no current pope? This is known as a vacant see, and to avoid a power vacuum there are detailed rules on what to do, and the Holy See is then administered by a regency of the college of cardinals, but in a very limited way.
Back with the elections, the votes of the cardinals are made through ballots, and every time a vote does not obtain the necessary two-thirds, they are burned in the bonfire, and black smoke comes out of the chimney due to the chemical components added to them. And when they finally manage to elect the next pope, they also burn the ballots, but the smoke will be white in that case, since they add other types of chemical components. It will then be time to choose your papal name. So far there have been 81 papal names, 37 of which have ever been repeated, and the most common are John, Gregory, Benedict, Clement, Innocent, Leo and Pius. If you want to be original, you can take a new name, like Pope Francis, or you can repeat one of the epic names of previous popes that have never been repeated, such as Agathon, Hormisdas, Melquiades, Symmachus, Simplicius, Sisinius or Zosimus.
And although you are called Pope Francis, your full title will be His Holiness, Pope Francis, Bishop of Rome, Vicar of Christ, Successor of Saint Peter, Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church, Primate of Italy, Metropolitan Bishop of the Province of Rome, Sovereign of the State of Vatican City, Servant of the Servants of God. And once you have chosen the name, congratulations, you are now the Pope, that is, the Bishop of Rome, but it will not be your only position. This is where the confusion begins a bit between the Pope, the Holy See and Vatican City. For to simplify extremely, in 1929 Benito Mussolini granted the Holy See the territory of Vatican City. The Holy See is a legal entity. It is administered by the Pope and is located in Vatican City, which is an independent country, and Vatican City is governed, in turn, by the Holy See. This makes the Pope also the head of state of Vatican City, although he is technically a monarch as it is an absolute monarchy. There are only 5 absolute monarchies left in the world, along with Saudi Arabia, Brunei, Oman and Swaziland, with the Vatican being the last absolute monarchy in Europe. And there is a precise problem, that of the lack of democracy, which prevents the Vatican City from entering the European Union. And unlike the rest of the absolute monarchies, which are hereditary, the Vatican is the only one in the world that is elective. As absolute monarch, all important decisions about its administration and operation pass through him. Obviously, Vatican City has a government, made up of cardinals, but the monarch has the power to change any decision made. And then there are international relations, which are maintained with the Holy See and not with Vatican City. And the same goes for the United Nations, which has 193 member states and two observer states, Palestine and the Holy See. Otherwise, Vatican City is, more or less, a country like the rest. It issues its own stamps and license plates, has the Vatican Bank, although non-profit, and also has its .va domain extension on the Internet.
And then it has two more peculiarities, passports and defense. For passports there is a duality. The Holy See issues personal, diplomatic and service passports and Vatican City issues regular passports for its citizens. In total, of the approximately 800 residents of Vatican City, more than 450 have Vatican citizenship. And who are its citizens? Unlike most countries that are based on Ius Sanguinis, citizenship through your parents, or Ius Soli, citizenship through the place where you are born. In Vatican City, citizenship is granted by Ius Officii, that is, by appointment to work in a certain position in the service of the Holy See. And when you stop working there, your citizenship is withdrawn. If your family lives with you in the city, they also give it to them. And among them are the approximately 135 Swiss Guards, which brings us to the second peculiarity, its defense. The Swiss Guard is the smallest professional army in the world, and was founded by Pope Julius II in 1506 for the protection of the Holy See and the Pope himself. It was dissolved up to three times, but it has been active continuously since 1814.
And perhaps now you have a question: what is the Pope's salary? If you are looking for money, I am sorry to tell you that the Pope does not receive any salary. Their living expenses and other needs are borne by the Holy See. And if that were not enough, Pope Francis, being a member of the Jesuit order, took a vow of poverty, unlike most popes. This is a promise to live without personal or communal possessions, depending solely on the support of the community.
Now I ask you, would you like to become the Pope? Share the answer in the comments and subscribe to see more videos like this.