HOW DOES THE POPE GET HIS NAME? WHAT ARE SOME SYMBOLS OF HIS OFFICE? AND WHY HAVE MOST OF OUR POPES BEEN ITALIAN? JEN

-- jen kosloski (flygirl2589@bolt.com), February 22, 2001

Answers

Response to about the pope

Pope from Papa or Spiritual Father. The primary symbol is the crossed keys. Because the Holy Spirit wanted it that way?

-- Br. Rich SFO (repsfo@prodigy.net), February 22, 2001.

Response to about the pope

Jmj

Hi, Jen.
Are you asking how a pope get a saint's name, such as John, Paul, Pius, etc.?
If so, the answer is that he freely chooses that name himself, immediately after being elected pope by the College of Cardinals.

As a bishop, the pope usually carries a crozier (shepherd's staff). However, Pope John Paul II has chosen to carry a stylized crucifix instead.

Since a Dominican priest (who wore a white habit) was elected pope about 500 years ago, all popes have worn special white garments.

Another symbol of the papacy is the papal flag (yellow and white stripes with the papal insignia -- the two crossed keys (one gold, one silver) and the triple crown (or "tiara"). The divisions of the crown (which popes no longer wear) represent the teaching, sanctifying, and ruling offices of the pope. The keys symbolize the pope's authority.

The pope also uses, but does not wear, a special ring (the Fisherman's Ring). It is engraved with the image of St. Peter fishing from a boat, and it is used for sealing documents with wax.

The pope is always the Bishop of Rome, in Italy. For the most part during the Church's history -- right up until the mid-1900s -- the majority of the men who voted to choose a new pope were Italians. It was pretty much expected that they would choose one from among their group to be the next Bishop of Rome. Then each new pope named most new cardinals from among the clergy of Italy, causing the custom to be carried forward through the centuries. This helps explain why so many popes have been Italian.
I think that the tremendous success of our current pope, from Poland, and the increasing "internationalization" of the College of Cardinals since World War II ended (1945) will cause many non-Italians to be elected pope in the coming centuries.

St. Peter, pray for us.
God bless you.
John

-- J. F. Gecik (jgecik@desc.dla.mil), February 23, 2001.

Response to about the pope

how was the pope chosen? what does the pope do each day? what is the papal flag?

-- maeve gallagher (shorty60248@aol.com), November 01, 2001.

Response to about the pope

Maeve,

There are 68 old thread on the Holy Popes. I am sure you will get all the answers to your questions there! Go to first page of forum and scroll all the way to bottom and you see it there.

God Bless You.

David S

-- David S (asdzxc8176@aol.com), November 01, 2001.

Response to about the pope

Maeve,
In case those old threads don't direct you to a picture of the papal flag, you can see one here.
JFG

-- (jfgecik@hotmail.com), November 01, 2001.

Response to about the pope

JFG , how did you do that , that in blue written "here" , click and .... you get the particular site ?? Thanks in advance !!

-- Laurent LUG. (no__religion@hotmail.com), November 01, 2001.

Response to about the pope

Laurent,

I'll answer for John since I wasted his time yesterday. You have to use an HTML tag that informs this thread that you are creating a link to another web site. You do this by embedding a command within the less than and greater than signs. In order to show you the exact tag, I will substitute { for < and { for >.

Here is the exact command: {a href="http://www.geographic.org/flags/new2/vatican_flags.html"} here. {/a}

The {/a} turns off the tag, and the "here." can be anything you wish to call the link.

As I mentioned in another thread, if you use Internet Explorer, you can find the tags using the View->Source.

Glenn

-- Glenn (glenn@excite.com), November 02, 2001.

Response to about the pope

Much obliged, Glenn.
You performed the task better than I could have done -- and with fewer words.
JFG

-- (jfgecik@hotmail.com), November 02, 2001.

Response to about the pope

Hello, My name is Liz, I am thirteen years old, and I am doing a project for reiligion. In my project their are a bunch of short-questions. One of them is "Why have most popes been Italian"? I had a difficult time finding this answer, but my hypothesis is that the answer is: Most popes have been Itailian because the Vadican is located in Italy. Thank you for your time, Liz P.S.:If you come across, a different answer could you please e-mail me As soon as possible.....thanks again, Liz !:)

-- Unavailable for private reasons (boardinbabe12@hotmail.com), December 03, 2001.

Response to about the pope

Hi I would like to know how does the Pope get name Pope?

Thank you

Patricia

-- Patricia Bryan (brynpatricia@aol.com), February 21, 2002.

Response to about the pope

You're asking how a new pope is chosen, Patricia?
Please click here to read a short article that explains this well.
God bless you.
JFG

-- (jfgecik@hotmail.com), February 22, 2002.