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The short, easy answer: it typically takes a lifetime of service for the rest of the church to determine if they fit the bill to be Pope.
Cuz they were born a long time ago? 🤷♀️
Because most popes are cardinals first and becoming a cardinal takes time. Usually they have to get a college education, then be a preist for several years, then become a bishop, then become a cardinal. CGPGrey video about how to become pope recommended.
Same reason most CEOs of long-established companies are old. The only young religious leaders are in startup religions.
Because old people die soon, so it’s difficult to really mess stuff up. It’s like an automatic failsafe.
Because only cardinals can be pope and it takes a long time to work your way up through the priesthood into administration and such like any organization. Also, unlike most businesses or governments they never hire some young(-ish) new ceo or department head from outside.
Actually any Catholic man could be Pope, but the cardinals usually pick one of their own.
Usually pick one of their own == have never not picked one of their own, right?
No. There were 6 popes who hadn’t been cardinals. Although it’s been a few hundred years since the last one (Urban VI., elected in 1378).
Interesting, I didn’t know that. I was gonna say it certainly hasn’t been any of the recent ones.
The older the average pope, the shorter the average term, and the more papal elections in a given span of time.
One of the main powers of cardinals is electing the pope, so more papal elections means more power for the college of cardinals.
It doesn’t really makes much sense.
The amount of power is the same. They don’t get more power by voting a pope every 5 years rather than every 30 years. They still vote for the pope, the person in that position is always there because it was voted by the Cardinals.
If something it would be the opposite. Selecting a person for a longer period would give you more power as your decision is more time in place unable to be challenged.
The amount of power is the same
There is only one pope seat at a time which they can assign, true. But that’s not a complete measurement of all the power involved.
Think of fit this way. Every time there’s an election, everyone comes out to kiss their ass and offer favors so that they themselves or “their guy” will get elected. If elections happen only every 20 years, then this ass-kiss-fest only happens every 20 years.
They’d rather it happen every 5 years.
Technically, they don’t have to be. They could elect a venerable whippersnapper cardinal - Dan Brown wrote a book about that. And that tells you how likely that is if he wrote the story. But it is possible.
It would be rare because it takes seniority to get into the position. And politics to be well liked enough to be put forward and then elected. By mostly old people. Some of whom would like the job themselves.
Technically any Catholic male is eligible to become pope, it doesn’t even have to be a cardinal. But yeah cardinals are the only ones voting so they always elect one of their own (with a few historical exceptions)
The young ones are all busy getting molested.
