Hebamus Papam!

santino · Apr 19, 2005

There's a new pope!!!
Benedict XVI

hope he's gonna continue pope John Paul's II philisophy.

MDowdey · Apr 19, 2005

i am honestly in awe of one man who can command a billion people.

i think its a true turning point in history, and even though im not catholic, i feel priveledged to have witnessed this event.

matt

ps. i have made out with a catholic girl though, and it was fun, so i guess you guys and girls have it going on

David A Sercel · Apr 19, 2005

santino said:
hope he's gonna continue pope John Paul's II philisophy.

I'll second that. John Paul II's shoes will be hard to fill.

Ratzinger was a perfect choice, IMO.

David

Unimaxium · Apr 19, 2005

Oh another Benedict. I think Popes should be more original in their names :roll: (just kidding). At least he didn't name himself after the guy who came directly before him, like JPII did.

LaFoto · Apr 20, 2005

I quite like the name he gave himself. But I will have to speak "Pope Benedict XVI" in my mind for quite some time now until I will have got used to it. To be thinking of him as "Cardinal Ratzinger" had become so easy... ah well.
Interesting to be "part" of such a point in history, isn't it?
Well, I still remember well when Pope John Paul II was elected Pope only weeks after John Paul I had been elected and died so unexpectedly soon afterwards. I think, John Paul II meant to honour his (extremely short-term) predecessor with choosing the same name.

Unimaxium · Apr 20, 2005

Just curious, but why do popes choose new names anyways? Why not just have a Pope Joseph, or a Pope Karol?

santino · Apr 20, 2005

Originally, popes kept their given names, but in 532, when a priest named Mercury assumed the throne, he discarded his pagan name in favor of John II. By the early 11th century, new names were the rule. Marcellus II, elected in 1555, was the last pope to keep his given name.
Various popes have rechristened themselves after apostles or other important church figures; many have taken names that project an image, like Pius, Clement or Innocent. Frequently, a pope will name himself for a distinguished predecessor: in 1831, Bartolomeo Alberto Cappellari became Gregory XVI because he particularly admired Gregory the Great (pope from 590 to 604) and St. Gregory VII (1073-85).

Jeff Canes · Apr 20, 2005

Unimaxium said:
Just curious, but why do popes choose new names anyways? Why not just have a Pope Joseph, or a Pope Karol?

You take saint names for each sacrament, and reflect on the saint influence on Christianity. Then use this leaning to help you grow in your faith.

Is my intuition

LaFoto · Apr 20, 2005

I put up the German word for pope names into Google and the first site that came up already gives a good explanation of why they change their names: the first -according to the text of www.kath.de/kurs/vatican/papstnamen.php- few popes did so to get rid of their unchristian, ie. heathen or politically charged or quite vulgar names. Later on the change of name symbolled the new dignity and also meant to show that the pope, i.e. the person who continues the work of St. Peter, has become a "new person".
And no one else but St. Peter changed his name first. He was Simon, called "Kephas", the rock, by Jesus himself (rock, Greek petros, I think... erm. My Greek is positively non-existent).
The commonest pope names have become John, Gregor, Benedict, Clemens, Leo, Innocence (spelt like that in English?), Pius, Boniface, Alexander, Paul, Nicholas and Martin (so the text also says). The first John Paul also was the first to choose a double name, followed by the recently deceased John Paul II - both meaning to thus honour their predecessors John XXIII and Paul VI.