Papal Trivia. Ages & Lasts

AGES OF POPES

-- Three popes were under the age of 25. The last was Pope Gregory V, who was 24 when elected in 996.

-- Seven were between 25 and 40 years old. The last was Pope Leo X, who was 37 in 1513.

-- Eleven were between 41 and 50. The last was Pope Clement VII, who was elected in 1523 at the age of 44.

-- 24 popes were in their 50s. The most recent was Blessed John Paul II, who was 58 years old when he began his papal ministry in 1978.

-- 37 were between 61 and 70 years old. The last was Pope John Paul I, who was 65 when he began his 33-day papacy in 1978.

-- Only three popes were over 80 when elected. The last, chosen by cardinals in 1406, was Pope Gregory XII. He was 81.

FAMOUS LASTS

Piazzoni also provided a list of "lasts":

-- The last pope who was not a cardinal yet when elected was Pope Urban VI in 1378.

-- The last who was not even a priest yet was Pope Leo X.

-- The last born in Rome was Pope Pius XII, elected in 1939. (He was also the last serving Vatican secretary of state elected.)

-- The last African was Pope Gelasius, elected in 492.

-- The last native of Dalmatia, an ancient Roman province, was Pope John IV in 640.

-- The last Frenchman elected was Pope Gregory XI, in 1370.

-- The last Greek was Pope Zachary in 741.

-- The last Englishman was Pope Adrian IV in 1154.

-- The last Italian was Pope John Paul I.

-- The last Dutchman was Pope Adrian VI in 1522.

-- The last Palestinian was Pope Theodore in 642.

-- The last Pole was Pope John Paul II in 1978.

-- The last Portuguese was Pope John XXI in 1276.

-- The last Syrian was Pope Gregory III in 731.

-- The last Spaniard was Pope Alexander VI in 1492.

-- The last German was Pope Benedict XVI, elected in 2005. It had been 950 years since a German -- Pope Victor II -- had been elected.



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Conclaves: Vatican Library official shares interesting, strange facts

Ambrogio Piazzoni, vice prefect of the Vatican Library and author of the book, "History of Papal Elections," shared facts and curiosities with journalists at the Vatican Feb. 20:

-- Electing a pope is the main and most serious responsibility of members of the College of Cardinals. In the last several hundred years, Piazzoni said, cardinals have missed a conclave only if they were seriously ill or if they were impeded from traveling to Rome by their governments.

-- The upcoming conclave to elect a successor to Pope Benedict XVI "will be, technically speaking, the 75th conclave" in the history of the church, he said. He dates the conclaves -- elections conducted while the cardinal-electors were closed off in a room -- to Pope Boniface VIII, who was elected in 1295 and inserted the conclave rules into the Code of Canon Law.

-- During World War II, Pope Pius XII, like several of his predecessors who were popes in times of war, left a document informing the College of Cardinals that if he were taken prisoner, he was no longer to be considered the pope, so the cardinals were to hold a conclave and elect a new pontiff.

-- Pope Gregory XV, elected in 1621, was the last pope to be elected by "spontaneous acclamation" when all the cardinals, believed to be acting under the influence of the Holy Spirit, proclaim the same candidate to be pope. Piazzoni said almost immediately after taking office, Pope Gregory changed the conclave rules to require that such a "spontaneous acclamation" be confirmed immediately with a written ballot in the conclave.

He also was first to rule that the cardinals must cast their votes secretly, in writing, rather than verbally.

-- Election by acclamation is no longer considered valid, nor is the "election by compromise" in which the cardinals, after a stalemate, unanimously decide to choose a few of their members and delegate to them the power to elect a pope. The last pope elected with that method, Piazzoni said, was Pope Clement IV in 1265 who was elected by two cardinals.

-- Pope Paul VI was the pope who clarified the exact moment when a candidate becomes pope: It is the moment he accepts his election, as long as he previously had been ordained a bishop. If the cardinals choose someone who has never been ordained a bishop, the ordination takes place immediately, then the election as pope becomes valid.

-- When Blessed Gregory X was elected by a cardinals meeting in Viterbo, Italy, in 1271, he was not present and he was not even a priest yet.

-- Pope Nicholas II, who served in 1059-61, was the pope who ruled that only cardinals were eligible to vote to elect a pope.

-- "To put an end to discord" created when two or more candidates received a similar number of votes, Pope Alexander II in 1169 established the rule that a candidate must receive a two-thirds majority to be elected.

-- Pope John Paul II was the first pope to specify that a conclave must take place in the Sistine Chapel. Previous popes recommended the chapel, but throughout history the conclaves have been held in a variety of churches in Rome and elsewhere.

http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1300745.html



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Praying For the Rite of Election

A Prayer Before the Rite of Election

Come Holy Spirit fall on each and everyone in RCIA.

Loving Trinity, even before each of these beautiful sojourners were born, You called them and You named them.

Even before they understood, You sought and summoned them.

In the last months,You have been choosing them in secret and intimate ways.

Now, You call them to stand before You and before Your people; to be elected by your Church and to be chosen by You for the world to see.

Grant them...

The courage to answer Your call, loudly and clearly

The courage to give You their name

The courage to give You their lives, so they may receive the name of your Son, Jesus Christ.

Finally Lord, make each day of their new life a public testimony to Your holy name.

Amen.

Forget Candy - Give Up Porn For Lent

It is time to stand up!!

Please review some of these important presentations. I think you will take a minute to look at them you'll see the porn has a grip on our society

PORN IS ADDICTIVE

1. Porn has a physical and mental impact on your well being.

     Shocking details of the impact on the brain: http://www.fightthenewdrug.org/Get-the-Facts/

PORN IS ATTACKING OUR KIDS

2. Porn has a killer effect on our society. From almost $100 billion a year revenue to touching youngest of our children--it is evil.

     Powerful presentation:  http://internet-filter-review.toptenreviews.com/internet-pornography-statistics.html

DON'T LOOK THE OTHER WAY--FIGHT BACK!!

3.  Regardless of the arguments in the media, porn is wrong at many levels.

Here are a few tools

     This is a comprehensive site:  Pornnomore.com/

     Also the US Catholics Site offers some ideas:  http://old.usccb.org/prolife/programs/rlp/houckpamphlet.pdf

Please do something for your family and your children.

Let us pray!

Prayer of St. Augustine 

Breathe in me, Holy Spirit, that all my thoughts may be holy,Act in me, Holy Spirit, that my work, too, may be holy,Draw my heart, Holy Spirit, that I may love only what is holy,Strengthen me, Holy Spirit, to defend all that is holy,Guard me, Holy Spirit, that I may always be holy.

POPE BENEDICT XVI RESIGNS

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Saying he no longer has the strength to exercise ministry over the universal church, Pope Benedict XVI announced Feb. 11 that he would be resigning at the end of the month.

"After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry," the pope told cardinals gathered for an ordinary public consistory to approve the canonization of new saints.

Pope Benedict, who was elected in April 2005, will be the first pope to resign in almost 600 years.

He told the cardinals, "In today's world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, in order to govern the bark of St. Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me."

The pope has had increasingly trouble walking in the past year, often using a cane and always being assisted getting up and down steps. However, the Vatican has never released medical information that would make it appear the pope suffers from anything other than joint pain connected to his age.

The option of a pope to resign is explicitly written into the Code of Canon Law. It says a pope may step down, but stipulates that the decision must be made freely and "duly manifested."

Fulfilling the canonical requirement, Pope Benedict solemnly declared to the cardinals, "Well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of bishop of Rome, successor of St. Peter, entrusted to me by the cardinals on 19 April 2005, in such a way, that as from 28 February 2013, at 20:00 hours, the See of Rome, the See of St. Peter, will be vacant and a conclave to elect the new supreme pontiff will have to be convoked by those whose competence it is."

It is up to the dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, to make preparations for a conclave to elect a new pope.

Before ending his remarks, Pope Benedict told the cardinals, "I thank you most sincerely for all the love and work with which you have supported me in my ministry and I ask pardon for all my defects. And now, let us entrust the holy church to the care of our supreme pastor, our Lord Jesus Christ, and implore his holy Mother Mary, so that she may assist the cardinal fathers with her maternal solicitude, in electing a new supreme pontiff."

The pope made no mention of his future plans, other than to say, "I wish to also devotedly serve the holy church of God in the future through a life dedicated to prayer."

END

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This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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February 5th Memorial of St. Agatha, virgin and martyr

February 5th

Memorial of St. Agatha, virgin and martyr 

 

Catholic Culture's Saint of the Day - St Agatha