Barbara Nicolosi of Church of the Masses wonders if there is some ecclesial tradition for a Pope not taking the name of Joseph. She further says:
If it was me, I would give my first blessing to the city and to the world as Pope Giuseppe I, or Papa Joe, for short. Any other nominations?
Now if we had a real down to earth American Pope then we might see Pope Joe Sixtus Pack.
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If I were to be the next Pope, I’d pick “Petrus Romanus,” just for fun. Or, Ed. Pope Ed.
I’d go back with Cletus II. Just sounds funny.
There are a few prophecies/visions/whatever that include a future pope being named Peter.
My guess is that no man has taken either Peter or Joseph merely out of respect.
Now, the next Pope Innocent will get significant media scrutiny.
The first pontiff to take another name as pope, John XIV (983-84), did so because his real name was Peter. The next two popes (John XV and Gregory V) went back to keeping their own names. Then, in 999, on the threshold of the second millenium, papal names were changed forever: a man was elected Pope by the name of . . . Gerbert. Obviously a Pope Gilbert would greatly diminish the dignity of the office in the eyes of the world so, drawing on the example of his predecessor Peter/John, he too decided to change his name. Of course there is a vast variety of great papal names to choose from. A Leo, Pius, John, Benedict, Gregory…all good, strong names demanding respect and commanding authority. But did Gerbert, finally given an opportunity to rid himself of a name which no doubt drew a lot of taunts on the medieval playground, choose one of these manly sobrquets? Nope. He figured he’d go with Sylvester. Yep, a name today synomous with a sputtering, stuttering cartoon. Of course of all the graces granted the Pope, trans-millenial foresight isn’t necessarily among them, so it really isn’t his fault. Besides, any name is probably better than Gerbert. I don’t know if good ol’ Gerbert had a similar salivation problem as our favorite animated feline, but he is said to have introduced Arabic numbers to the West and invented the pendulum clock, so I suppose the capture of a single canary probably would not be as difficult for him as it appears to be for our contemporary Sylvester.
Credit goes to Fr. Peter Cebulka, C.O. as the original source for this great little historical nugget and New Advent for the details.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08427b.htm
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14371a.htm
I forgot to mention above that since Gerbert/Sylvester most popes have changed chosen new names upon their election (perhaps every pope has, though I’m not certain about the precise statistics).
Andrew is a name not used either. I wonder if this is a nod to Constantinople, whose Church he was supposed to havve founded.
Fr. O’Neal’s comment about avoiding the names Peter and Joseph out of respect sounds reasonable to me.
Maybe future popes will take some of the name popular for children born these days. Will we live to see a Pope Kody or a Pope Tyler?
Pope Dakota.
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