Being the Pope can be a tough job

 

The Pope has a tough job, since he is the spiritual leader of 1.329 billion people (at the end of 2018.)

When Pope Francis was elected in 2013, I thought that he was too old for the job, since he was 76 years old at the time. He is still the pope today, and he is now 84 years old – and still going strong.

Even if you aren’t a history buff, I’d recommend that you watch the 2019 movie, “The Two Popes”, since it discusses the transfer of power from Pope Benedict to Pope Francis.

(When Joe Biden announced his candidacy, there were a lot of people in this country who thought he was too old (he recently turned 78) but he was running against a man who is 74. If Biden decided to run again in 2024, he would be 86 years old at the end of his second term, if he was re-elected)

Throughout history, there have been a number of Popes who had very short tenures. In fact, a total of 9 Popes reigned for less than 30 days, and 2 Popes reigned only for 33 days.

A total of 10 Popes served 20 years or longer, and the longest serving Pope was Pius IX, who served for more than 31 years. 

https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_popes_by_length_of_reign

Since Popes generally are older when they are elected, it is not unusual for a Pope to die in office. As a result, it is common for 2 different people to serve as a pope in a given year. There have also been 12 times when there were THREE different Popes in one year, and there is one year (1276) when there were FOUR different people to serve as the Pope in a given year.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_of_three_popes 

There was also a period of time (1378 – 1417) when three popes served AT THE SAME TIME. Pope Clement was the Pope of Avignon (France), Urban was the Pope of Rome, and Alexander was the Pope of Pisa.

https://www.interesly.com/medieval-three-popes-antipope/#:~:text=Between%201378%20and%201417%2C%20three%20popes%20actually%20reigned,papacy%2C%20Italians%20really%20wanted%20a%20pope%20in%20Rome.

Although Pope Francis is a busy man, he has still managed to write 27 books. I’ve read “Laudato Si”, and I’ve read a book ABOUT Francis, but trying to read ALL his books would be a Herculean task.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=books+by+pope+francis&hvadid=77996737481119&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvqmt=e&tag=mh0b-20&ref=pd_sl_1r2ieb9aki_e

I’m of the opinion that Pope Francis is doing a good job, but he is not well liked by the more conservative members of our society. To those folks I would say, “give him a break – he’s got a tough job”.