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How the Papacy Works · Stuff You Should Know

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Speaker 1: Brought to you by Toyota. Let's go places. Welcome to
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Speaker 1: you stuff you should know Friendhouse, Stuff Works dot Com. Hey,
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Speaker 1: and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W.
0:17
Speaker 1: Chuck Bryant. Uh. And you put the two of us
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Speaker 1: together at our new editor casey. Yeah, uh, and you
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Speaker 1: have stuff you should know. Yeah, guest editor is not
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Speaker 1: Matt this time. And we are in what looks like
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Speaker 1: the room of the serial killer. Yeah, Buffalo bills. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: this is the fourth room. Now we've been shuffled to
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Speaker 1: in this office and this is a brand new to us.
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Speaker 1: And it definitely very much looks like there might be
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Speaker 1: a head floating in a jar behind me somewhere. Yeah.
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Speaker 1: All of the windows are blacked out with foam. Um.
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Speaker 1: There's one single bulb light in the middle of the table.
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Speaker 1: There's stuff stacked around all over the play It's like
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Speaker 1: some horder serial killer is living here. It's not a
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Speaker 1: good place, Like I don't feel good right now, like
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Speaker 1: temporarily living here, Like a serial killer wouldn't even live
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Speaker 1: in here. This is just where they go to like
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Speaker 1: take evidence. This is where they keep the victim. Yeah. Um,
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Speaker 1: and that's where're recording from today. Yeah, we wanted to
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Speaker 1: set the set the mental stage, all right, you know,
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Speaker 1: I mean the mental environment has a really it's has
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Speaker 1: a pronounced effect on the mind, like where we are. Yes, yeah,
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Speaker 1: but no one cares. Remember that. They're always just so good.
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Speaker 1: Just put jokes, joke in the hallway and they'll they're fine.
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Speaker 1: Yeah it's um. Yeah, and apparently someone's listening to their
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Speaker 1: voicemail just outside or great. Um. So the Pope, yes,
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Speaker 1: so you know Joseph Ratzinger John Ratzenberger. No, no, no,
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Speaker 1: this guy is totally different. I thought that was who
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Speaker 1: the Pope was, you know, the Pope. You would be
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Speaker 1: more familiar with Pope Benedict the second. Yeah. Um, but
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Speaker 1: his birth name was Joseph ratzen Germ And following what um,
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Speaker 1: what is a very very long tradition, as we'll see, um,
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Speaker 1: he changed his name when he became pope. Well, I
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Speaker 1: don't know if you know this or not, even though
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Speaker 1: you selected this article, but I'm February eleven, he announced
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Speaker 1: he's going to retire. Yeah, on the I think this
2:20
Speaker 1: is like I guess I gave two weeks because roughly
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Speaker 1: two weeks later is going to be his last day,
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Speaker 1: and I felt, I'm not Catholic, and I don't know
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Speaker 1: much about the Catholic religion, um, because I grew up
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Speaker 1: in the South, and especially you know, they're not a
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Speaker 1: ton of Catholics in the South compared to other parts
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Speaker 1: of the country. This is a very northeastern, Midwestern Yeah. Um.
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Speaker 1: I felt bad for the guy though, because people like
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Speaker 1: call him Pope scary and stuff, because he sort of
2:45
Speaker 1: looked kind of creepy. Yeah, and I just remember thinking
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Speaker 1: that's not nice. He did. He was also um drafted
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Speaker 1: into the German military during World War Two, which is
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Speaker 1: you know, yeah, kind of something, and he abandoned, didn't
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Speaker 1: he He deserted, yes, um, sensibly before he fired a
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Speaker 1: shot at anybody. I think it was during basic training
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Speaker 1: that he was like, I'm out of here. I might
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Speaker 1: want to be Pope one day, and he's not going
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Speaker 1: to look good on my resume. Um. But yeah. Plus
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Speaker 1: also he followed in the footsteps of Pope John Paul,
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Speaker 1: the second, arguably the most lovable pope of all time. Yeah.
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Speaker 1: I mean he was seventy eight to two thousand five.
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Speaker 1: That's a nice chunk of time in the modern era.
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Speaker 1: So he was a huge traveler. He was credited with
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Speaker 1: helping to bring about the end of the Cold War
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Speaker 1: to some degree. Um, he was beloved by all, even
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Speaker 1: people who weren't Catholic. Love Pope John Paul the Second. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: he's probably the most impersonated pope. You know, the one
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Speaker 1: guy or maybe it wasn't just one guy that that
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Speaker 1: naked gunn well, yeah, and others, but that's the one
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Speaker 1: I always associated looked just like him John Paul too, Yeah, JP,
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Speaker 1: And they would do that smile in like the weird
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Speaker 1: way with the hand he learned from Queen Elizabeth. Um. Okay,
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Speaker 1: so yeah, Benedict said, hey, I'm very tired. I'm I'm
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Speaker 1: going to retire, and the whole old said, I don't
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Speaker 1: know if you can do that. Can a pope retire?
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Speaker 1: He said, oh, yes you can. As a matter of fact,
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Speaker 1: the last pope to retire was Gregory the twelve. Just
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Speaker 1: go back six hundred years for president Yeah to be exact, Um,
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Speaker 1: where he basically retired to end what was called the
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Speaker 1: Great Schism at the time. Yeah. Apparently. Um, there was
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Speaker 1: a seventy year period where the papacy, which is the
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Speaker 1: governance by the pope UM left Rome and moved Averignon, France. Okay,
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Speaker 1: and um, I guess Gregory the eleven, so do you
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Speaker 1: know what, We're going to take it back to Rome.
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Speaker 1: And that created the Great Schism, which, depending on who
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Speaker 1: you ask, made Pope Benedict either the two hundred and
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Speaker 1: sixty five or the two hundred sixty six Pope, because
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Speaker 1: during this Great Schism there was a pope in Rome
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Speaker 1: and there was a pope in Avignon, France. So then uh,
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Speaker 1: Gregory the twelve comes to power and says, you know what,
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Speaker 1: I'm just gonna retire. It's gonna end the Great Schism.
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Speaker 1: He's the last Pope, and I believe the first pope
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Speaker 1: ever to retire, so Bennett, so there's only been to Benedict.
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Speaker 1: The second is the second as far as I know.
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Speaker 1: Did you see Saturday in Life this week? No, I
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Speaker 1: don't watch us. I know these days it's the had
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Speaker 1: Crystal Faults was on. Did you see the little Pope
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Speaker 1: retiring commercial? It was pretty funny. They did like the
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Speaker 1: typical like you know, financial retirement commercial spoof of the
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Speaker 1: pope retiring and getting every all financials in a row.
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Speaker 1: It was pretty funny. I think my favorite um SNL
5:35
Speaker 1: commercial is the one with Sam Waterson Waterson from Law
5:38
Speaker 1: and Order Jack McCoy, which one was where he talks about, UM,
5:43
Speaker 1: he's selling insurance to the elderly to protect against robots
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Speaker 1: who want to come into their home and eat their
5:48
Speaker 1: medication because that's what they that's what they're fueled by.
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Speaker 1: And robots are gonna come your home unless you have
5:54
Speaker 1: this insurance Pacemaker mads. It's really great commercial that you
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Speaker 1: put him in anything, and yeah, it's going to feel
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Speaker 1: like that kind of commercial, and he managed to do
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Speaker 1: with the straight face to um, this is a guy's
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Speaker 1: a class act. Uh So okay, So Benedict the second
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Speaker 1: announces he retires and um, you choose how the papacy works.
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Speaker 1: And I think we should point out we're talking about
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Speaker 1: the papacy, which is this position in the world, this
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Speaker 1: world leader, figurehead, the head of the Catholic Church, Papa,
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Speaker 1: Vicar of Christ, the Holy Father, the Bishop of Rome.
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Speaker 1: They're all synonymous with the pope. And what the pope
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Speaker 1: does is the papacy. So that's what we're talking about,
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Speaker 1: is the papacy. It's like what the Pope's expected to do.
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Speaker 1: How you get a new pope. Well, there's a lot
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Speaker 1: of people questions. Yeah, and this one is especially relevant,
6:44
Speaker 1: you know, because a lot of this is going to
6:45
Speaker 1: deal with the really interesting I found process for selecting
6:50
Speaker 1: and electing. And of course because it's religion A and
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Speaker 1: Catholic religion B. It's not just we get around and
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Speaker 1: we talk about it and we like raise our hands.
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Speaker 1: It's you know, it's like very uh. I don't know.
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Speaker 1: It's kind of a cool process. I think it is.
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Speaker 1: It's dark Kane and it's and it's happening right now.
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Speaker 1: It can't happen yet, no, no, no, it's the process
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Speaker 1: has begun. They're trying to it's fit the March of
7:15
Speaker 1: steenth is the vote, but they're trying to get it
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Speaker 1: pushed forward. Even they are because I thought it can't
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Speaker 1: happen sooner than fifteen days after the pope retires. After
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Speaker 1: the pope dies. Oh really, so they're gonna push it
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Speaker 1: forward because he's retired because there's no reason not to basically,
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Speaker 1: oh yeah, because they don't have to celebrate the funeral
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Speaker 1: or have a body on their hands. It's not me,
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Speaker 1: it's people. Yeah, but you notice that detail. Yeah, people saying,
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Speaker 1: you know, if we can go ahead and push this
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Speaker 1: forward a little bit, but at the very we know
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Speaker 1: it's going to happen on the fifteenth or earlier. Um,
7:47
Speaker 1: and they're already talking about maybe the first African pope.
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Speaker 1: I know, I'm excited American guy from Ghana or a
7:54
Speaker 1: guy from Brazil. Yeah, um, yeah, I'm pretty psyched about that.
7:58
Speaker 1: There miter in the in the ring. I guess apparently
8:01
Speaker 1: it's going to be a very conservative pope still because um,
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Speaker 1: Pope Benedict canonized, um or elected to Cardinal of the Electorate.
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Speaker 1: Well and John Paul was the other. So um, there's
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Speaker 1: your You're going to get a pope who shares the
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Speaker 1: same views as Benedict most likely probably, But that hasn't
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Speaker 1: stopped people from writing end list op eds already saying, hey,
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Speaker 1: the majority of Catholics believe X, Y and Z, Now
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Speaker 1: can we get a pope that represents a modern the
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Speaker 1: modern Catholic. And they're saying it's probably not gonna happen.
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Speaker 1: We're thinking, but it's probably not gonna but maybe they'll
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Speaker 1: be from Latin America or Africa, which would be you know,
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Speaker 1: it's a pretty big jump forward. First non European and
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Speaker 1: like a thousand years. I think, yeah, well we don't
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Speaker 1: know yet. Well possibly, yeah, let's see, I'm excited. Let's
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Speaker 1: talk about this. How how long have we had pope? Uh,
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Speaker 1: well we have had depending on who you ask. Um. St.
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Speaker 1: Peter possibly is the first pope, even though he never like,
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Speaker 1: they didn't have the office of pope at the time.
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Speaker 1: That he's widely considered to be the first pope because
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Speaker 1: Jesus himself sort of handed over the reins and said,
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Speaker 1: you know what, when I ascend to Heaven, I'd like
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Speaker 1: you to kind of run the show for me, if
9:26
Speaker 1: you don't mind. And um, Biblical scholars love, love, love
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Speaker 1: interpreting stuff that Jesus said. And he said something in
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Speaker 1: Matthew six eighteen UM that they take to say Peter
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Speaker 1: was the first pope. Peter was the person that Jesus said,
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Speaker 1: it's up to you to run the church. Yeah, that verses.
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Speaker 1: And I say, also, unto the thou that thou art, Peter,
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Speaker 1: and upon this rock, I will build my church, and
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Speaker 1: the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it. And
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Speaker 1: that is the Petrin or petron guarantee. And uh. Theologians
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Speaker 1: believe that Peter is the because Jesus spoke Aramaic and
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Speaker 1: Peter's original name was Simon and Christ named him Peter,
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Speaker 1: uh named him Cephas, which is Aramaic. Four rocks. So
10:11
Speaker 1: they're saying not to be confused with or Yeah, Hank
10:16
Speaker 1: Williams Jr. Yeah that's pretty good. Um so yeah, so
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Speaker 1: people saying theologians mainly say, you know what, that's the
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Speaker 1: rock that he's talking about. The rock is Peter. And
10:27
Speaker 1: further evidence is when he also says, to Peter, feed
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Speaker 1: my sheep, but I work you have to imagine, and
10:34
Speaker 1: he's said in a certain tone, I know, but I
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Speaker 1: word just like, hey, that's what I worry about. So
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Speaker 1: he's like, buddy, I'm going to heaven, would you mind
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Speaker 1: feeding my sheep while I'm gone, Which is funny that
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Speaker 1: there's sheep that actually died, because Peter was like, he means,
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Speaker 1: I know what he means, Peter, I'm not a Bible literalist.
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Speaker 1: He's got people to feed his other sheep, and then
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Speaker 1: he would never asked me to feed his sheep. He
10:57
Speaker 1: wants to lead his people about wool. Well, okay, so
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Speaker 1: Peter's the first pope that's that's part of church dogma.
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Speaker 1: That's the pet try and guarantee, even though it wasn't
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Speaker 1: like the popes came after Peter right, and they came
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Speaker 1: after Peter. Well, Peter went to Rome late in his
11:15
Speaker 1: life to say, hey, Jesus is just all right with me?
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Speaker 1: Um and uh. He was killed for it by Nero,
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Speaker 1: persecuted the early church um, which at the time was
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Speaker 1: basically just Peter um. And so Peter became a martyr. No,
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Speaker 1: Nero didn't fiddle. So Peter Peter becomes a martyr. He's uh.
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Speaker 1: He's buried on Vatican Hill um and the Basilica of St.
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Speaker 1: Peter is built over him and um and from that
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Speaker 1: point on to honor Peter as as the first pope,
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Speaker 1: all other popes that fell into line behind him are
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Speaker 1: are considered to be the direct successor of Peter. So
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Speaker 1: if you look at the papal family tree, there's Peter
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Speaker 1: at the top, and then there's one other line, and
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Speaker 1: it's all the popes coming directly from Peter. Whoever follows
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Speaker 1: on this next one isn't descended from John Ratzenburger. He's
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Speaker 1: descended from Peter right. He's following Peter's direct rule right,
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Speaker 1: And as such, the pope is considered to be carrying
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Speaker 1: on directly the bestowment of power conferred by Jesus onto Peter. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: and I kind of like that. I guess that sort
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Speaker 1: of signifies it's it's the office and not the person,
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Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like it puts the importance
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Speaker 1: on the office itself and not like, hey, you're following
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Speaker 1: this guy right well, you know, like you're following the
12:40
Speaker 1: the original the o G. I was gonna say that,
12:43
Speaker 1: but now about that's disrespectful. And then I thought, I've
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Speaker 1: called the pope John Ratzenburger four times. Sorry, I think
12:49
Speaker 1: you got that covered, okay. Um. And then so that
12:53
Speaker 1: you've got the the the idea that the pope is
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Speaker 1: a direct successor Peter, which gives him tons of power. Basically,
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Speaker 1: he's one grease separated from Jesus conferring the powers onto Peter.
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Speaker 1: And then um, the the bunch of bishops got together
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Speaker 1: to create the first Vatican Council in eighteen seventy and said,
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Speaker 1: you know what, not only that we we have thought
13:15
Speaker 1: about it were theologians, and we've decided that the pope
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Speaker 1: is infallible in matters of spirituality and religion. That was
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Speaker 1: a big deal because it basically means you can't question
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Speaker 1: anything that comes out of his mouth. If he lays
13:29
Speaker 1: down some doctrine, then that's the final word. Because Jesus
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Speaker 1: conferred these powers onto Peter, and these people are direct
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Speaker 1: successors of Peter and by by proxy, have the same power.
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Speaker 1: Jesus was infallible ex post facto, so is the pope.
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Speaker 1: That's what they said, And everybody said, Okay, we were
13:48
Speaker 1: listening to him anyway, but thank you for making official. Yeah, exactly. So, Um,
13:54
Speaker 1: that's the pope. That's the power of the pope. Um.
13:57
Speaker 1: And again this is the was powerful figurehead of any religion.
14:02
Speaker 1: There at one point six billion Muslims in the world,
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Speaker 1: but there's not a living figurehead of that of the
14:09
Speaker 1: of Islam. With Catholicism there's one point two billion, and
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Speaker 1: there's one guy who's the head of it all, and
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Speaker 1: that's the Pope. So let's say Benedict hed retired. Let's
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Speaker 1: say he stayed pope until he died. What happens. What
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Speaker 1: happens when the pope died? Um? Well, the there's an
14:29
Speaker 1: an authority called the Cardinal Carma Lingo I like that name,
14:35
Speaker 1: or Chamberlain it's another name, and that's the Secretary of
14:37
Speaker 1: State of the Vatican, and Vatican City is the smallest
14:40
Speaker 1: independent state in the World's and change acres. Yeah, and
14:46
Speaker 1: I think I told my story at the time about
14:48
Speaker 1: walking around it because I was trying to find the
14:50
Speaker 1: way in and there's no way in unless you go
14:53
Speaker 1: on the front. Are you trying to sneak in the
14:56
Speaker 1: back door of Vatican? So I just thought like, surely
14:58
Speaker 1: you can get in this way, like, so they'll let me.
15:02
Speaker 1: But there was just big, tall walls, and it's a
15:05
Speaker 1: long walk around the Vatican. A hundred acres is kind
15:07
Speaker 1: of a walk. Yeah, things like one ten or one's
15:10
Speaker 1: I think dead on a country mile as the bird flies. Um,
15:16
Speaker 1: all right, so where were we? So that the Secretary
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Speaker 1: of State uh assumes the non theological responsibilities of the
15:24
Speaker 1: pope immediately, and it's sort of like if the president
15:27
Speaker 1: passes on, the vice president takes over, you know, in
15:30
Speaker 1: the interim running Vatican City. Yeah, actually not interim for
15:33
Speaker 1: the president. Their permanent um, well until the next election,
15:36
Speaker 1: right yeah, yeah, permanent meaning it's not an interim position unfortunately. Yeah. Uh,
15:43
Speaker 1: so they have to confirm that the pope is dead,
15:46
Speaker 1: and they call the pope's name three times. There's no
15:51
Speaker 1: by name, I think, And there's a myth that I
15:54
Speaker 1: had a hard time tracking down that they would hit
15:57
Speaker 1: tap the pope on the head with a silver hammer
16:00
Speaker 1: three times. And apparently that is something that they did
16:04
Speaker 1: until the nineteen sixties, and that went the way of
16:06
Speaker 1: the Dodo. I can imagine, because all the popes had
16:09
Speaker 1: little bruises. Yeah, I think it was a tap and
16:12
Speaker 1: not like a post mortem bruising from a hammer. But
16:15
Speaker 1: I think they do use that same hammer to destroy
16:20
Speaker 1: the ring of the fishermen, which they remove once the
16:23
Speaker 1: pope is passed. Every pope has worn this for like
16:26
Speaker 1: eight hundred years. Yeah, some version of it's like it's
16:29
Speaker 1: a seal with Peter on a fishing boat fishing and
16:32
Speaker 1: then the name of that pope and then they destroyed
16:35
Speaker 1: the same one. But did you see whether they used
16:36
Speaker 1: the same gold to make a new ring, remember for
16:40
Speaker 1: missing gold recycled. That's true, but apparently they used that
16:45
Speaker 1: silver hammer to destroy the ring and the seals. And Um,
16:50
Speaker 1: the body lies there and repose for nine nine days consecutive.
16:54
Speaker 1: They celebrate the funeral rights. There are no photos allowed.
16:57
Speaker 1: Um because the bruising, yeah, as the bruising. But once uh,
17:03
Speaker 1: they have put the pope in his vestments and the miter.
17:08
Speaker 1: I guess, although I don't know, you're probably not buried
17:10
Speaker 1: in the miter which the yeah, I don't recall seeing John. No,
17:18
Speaker 1: he had his little skull cap on hich has a
17:21
Speaker 1: specific name too. I can't take of that right now. No,
17:24
Speaker 1: I think for them, it's different for Catholic popes. Um,
17:29
Speaker 1: then you are allowed, if so deemed, you are allowed
17:32
Speaker 1: to take a post mortem photo, like an official photo
17:35
Speaker 1: for like documenting the situation. But you can't go in
17:39
Speaker 1: there with your cameras. And if the pope is sick
17:41
Speaker 1: on his deathbed, you can't go in there and film
17:43
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. It's untoward, it is. And then
17:47
Speaker 1: they bury him. Yeah, they bury him in like a
17:50
Speaker 1: little Matroshka doll in three coffins, one in case of
17:54
Speaker 1: another encase, then another, so it's a cypress elm and
17:56
Speaker 1: then lead. Yeah, and like who's working with lead these days?
18:01
Speaker 1: I don't know, I guess Roman coffin maker. That's that's scary,
18:06
Speaker 1: Like how do you prevent any kind of lead poisoning
18:08
Speaker 1: when you're making a lead coffin. I don't know. I mean,
18:12
Speaker 1: let's still use right, it's not like yeah, I think
18:15
Speaker 1: it's fairly discontinued in in most cases. Yeah, you should
18:20
Speaker 1: read this, Thump. There's a Mother Jones article called the
18:23
Speaker 1: Real Criminal Element Lead. It is awesome, man. Yeah. Basically
18:27
Speaker 1: they tied crime rates and the decline of crime rates
18:31
Speaker 1: across American cities with the decline of letty gasoline. Interesting. Yeah,
18:36
Speaker 1: it's really interesting and they do it pretty convincingly. You
18:39
Speaker 1: should have called it, get the lead out, I thought. So, Like,
18:41
Speaker 1: there's a bunch of different puns they could have made.
18:44
Speaker 1: They chose one. So now we have to elect a
18:47
Speaker 1: new pope. Right, whether whether Benedict was dead or not,
18:50
Speaker 1: this is the same thing that's going to happen. And
18:52
Speaker 1: like you said, they're trying to move it up because
18:54
Speaker 1: he's not that they don't have to carry out the funeral, right. So, um,
18:58
Speaker 1: And the first thing that happens is the College of Cardinals.
19:02
Speaker 1: The guys who are going to serve as the electors,
19:04
Speaker 1: not the University of Louisville, no, but the College of Cardinals. Um.
19:08
Speaker 1: They get together and they enter what is called conclave,
19:12
Speaker 1: which means with Key, which means that they are basically
19:15
Speaker 1: sequestered from the rest of the world until they can
19:18
Speaker 1: come to a two thirds agreement. Now I think that's
19:24
Speaker 1: a simple majority is half plus one. This is like
19:27
Speaker 1: straight up two thirds, I believe. So we need to
19:30
Speaker 1: change this in um the Well, no, you can after
19:34
Speaker 1: twelve or thirteen days go to a simple majority. Yeah,
19:37
Speaker 1: but you want to be plus one is the first
19:40
Speaker 1: go and then if that doesn't work, then you got
19:42
Speaker 1: a simple majority. Well, then you're probably right because I
19:46
Speaker 1: think this was Um, I don't know, man, we'll call
19:50
Speaker 1: them out. I think it might have been Tom Harris.
19:53
Speaker 1: We'll go with Tom. So it's probably we'll go with
19:56
Speaker 1: two thirds plus one in this case. Um. So basically
19:59
Speaker 1: the cardinals get to other they are sequestered. They they
20:04
Speaker 1: basically there's I think a hundred and twenty of them tops.
20:08
Speaker 1: There's one seventeen right now. They haven't picked the other
20:11
Speaker 1: three yet. I don't think there are another three. So
20:13
Speaker 1: there's a hundred between a hundred and seventeen and a
20:16
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty electors cardinals who are going to vote
20:19
Speaker 1: for pope. I think it's no more than a hundred
20:22
Speaker 1: and twenty that's the maximum number. There's also an age limit.
20:26
Speaker 1: If you turned eighty before the day the Pope dies
20:31
Speaker 1: or retires, you're out. You're your old news um and
20:36
Speaker 1: you can't vote. You can't be a cardinal in the electorate.
20:39
Speaker 1: Even though the Benedict was like seventy eight when he
20:43
Speaker 1: was elected pope. Right, Well, that doesn't cover pope. That
20:46
Speaker 1: covers whoever is electing the pope. Yeah, no, but I
20:48
Speaker 1: just find it interesting that two years later you you
20:51
Speaker 1: can't even vote, yet they would put someone in, as
20:54
Speaker 1: you know, the highest office. I don't know. Well, he
20:56
Speaker 1: was the oldest pope ever elected. Yah know, these guys
21:00
Speaker 1: can't even tweet. And you may laugh, but there are
21:04
Speaker 1: nine active tweet twitterers in the College of Cardinals. Well,
21:10
Speaker 1: there's the Pope has their Twitter account, pont effects. But
21:13
Speaker 1: nine of the cardinals tweet themselves and they're there have
21:16
Speaker 1: there's they have specifically been forbidden from tweeting during this
21:20
Speaker 1: time period. I can see that. Oh, it's part of
21:22
Speaker 1: you know, being under key in conclaff. I wonder if
21:25
Speaker 1: they ever thought they would have to cover that though, Hey,
21:28
Speaker 1: the world is changing, but tweeting cardinals Okay, So there's
21:35
Speaker 1: two ballots a day, uh, for a total of four
21:39
Speaker 1: to too possible in the morning too in the afternoon,
21:42
Speaker 1: and then after twelve or thirteen days, if there's still
21:44
Speaker 1: no pope, they can say, you know what, to heck
21:46
Speaker 1: with this where it's going to go with a simple majority,
21:49
Speaker 1: which I think is plus one and uh, then we'll
21:53
Speaker 1: elect the new pope. And while they're doing this, there's
21:56
Speaker 1: like some there's there's some details that you know, have
22:00
Speaker 1: to be followed to vote for a new pope. Yeah,
22:04
Speaker 1: it's pretty cool, Like you know, this information has always
22:08
Speaker 1: been out there, but now in today's age, it's really
22:11
Speaker 1: out there. So I think up until this election, a
22:13
Speaker 1: lot of people probably didn't understand like exactly what's going on. Well,
22:17
Speaker 1: Pope John Paul published um the guidelines. He said, Hey, everybody,
22:22
Speaker 1: we're just being transparent. Here, here's what we're doing. Here,
22:24
Speaker 1: south's done so. Uh, they're rectangular ballots and this is
22:27
Speaker 1: all very important. Imagine they probably don't vary from this process.
22:31
Speaker 1: I wouldn't be like, you know what, I'm gonna do
22:32
Speaker 1: a round ballot just to mix things up. Um at
22:35
Speaker 1: the top, yeah, at the top of the words, uh,
22:39
Speaker 1: Latin words iligo in some of them pontiffs, Um, I
22:44
Speaker 1: elect a supreme pontiff. So it's basically saying like, this
22:47
Speaker 1: is the official ballot, and then below that the each
22:50
Speaker 1: cardinal is going to write down the name in pen
22:53
Speaker 1: of the pope hand in their little paper like it's
22:58
Speaker 1: the elementary school student body. They folded twice. Now I
23:01
Speaker 1: thought someone else. Uh oh no, they yah, they folded twice, right,
23:05
Speaker 1: and then they put it on a plate and then
23:07
Speaker 1: they used the plate to dump it into the ballot box. Yeah. Well,
23:10
Speaker 1: and they have to say out loud, I call is
23:12
Speaker 1: my witness, Christ, the Lord who will be my judge,
23:15
Speaker 1: that my vote is given to the one who, before
23:17
Speaker 1: God I think should be elected, which is saying like
23:20
Speaker 1: I'm not I'm not bending to popularity. This in a
23:23
Speaker 1: popularity contest. This is who I genuinely think God is
23:27
Speaker 1: my witness should be pope. And they have to carry
23:29
Speaker 1: it in the air. And I guess all of this
23:32
Speaker 1: is just sort of like why they put it on
23:34
Speaker 1: a plate and hold it in the air. It's just like, look,
23:35
Speaker 1: nothing's happening. I wrote it down. This is the same
23:39
Speaker 1: piece of paper. Well, it also makes um so so
23:42
Speaker 1: cardinals while they're electing is a little known fact to
23:45
Speaker 1: actually float down the aisle towards the ballot box until
23:48
Speaker 1: holding the ballot up in the air makes the whole
23:50
Speaker 1: thing look even cooler. Cool. Um, So you've got some
23:55
Speaker 1: guys who are charged with counting the ballots and and
23:59
Speaker 1: basically tally who's going to be pope. Of course, they're
24:02
Speaker 1: called scrutineers. That's gonna be my next band name. And
24:04
Speaker 1: the three scrutineers, just the scrutineers, okay, because there's four us. Well,
24:09
Speaker 1: I was gonna say it would be kind of cool
24:10
Speaker 1: if it was the three scrutineers, but there was four.
24:13
Speaker 1: Really really freak out the crowd, man. Um. So you've
24:17
Speaker 1: got the three scrutineers and two of them, uh they
24:22
Speaker 1: they well, okay, so you have one sitting who takes
24:25
Speaker 1: the ballot out of the ballot box, writes down the
24:27
Speaker 1: name of the pope or the person voted for pope,
24:30
Speaker 1: hands us to the next person the first to write
24:32
Speaker 1: it down, and then the third um scrutineer reads the
24:35
Speaker 1: name out loud and the other two they say, yep,
24:38
Speaker 1: that's the one I have here that I wrote down,
24:41
Speaker 1: and then they take it and pierce it through the
24:45
Speaker 1: the eleigo with the needle and move it along a
24:49
Speaker 1: line of thread, and then you have ultimately all the
24:52
Speaker 1: ballots tallied. That's right. And uh, if they don't elect
24:57
Speaker 1: the pope, they burn them, that's right. And very portant
25:00
Speaker 1: step before that, they tie the end of it so
25:03
Speaker 1: it's a sealed circle with the ballots hanging from it,
25:08
Speaker 1: because if it's not tied shut, that means the vote
25:10
Speaker 1: is still open, right yeah, Okay, So then they burn them.
25:13
Speaker 1: And if it's if they haven't elected a pope through
25:15
Speaker 1: that ballot, they added some chemical that makes the smoke
25:19
Speaker 1: black and they blow it out of the Vatican Palace
25:24
Speaker 1: to let everybody know no pope. Yet when they do
25:27
Speaker 1: elect the pope, they just let it be white smoke, right, Yeah.
25:31
Speaker 1: And it used to be they used to use like
25:32
Speaker 1: wet straw and stuff, but there was confusion at times
25:36
Speaker 1: when it didn't burn like appropriately. So now they just
25:39
Speaker 1: add a chemical that they know was gonna do the job. Um.
25:43
Speaker 1: And so when the new pope is elected, he the
25:47
Speaker 1: guy comes to the uh, he meets with the Cardinal Deacon,
25:52
Speaker 1: the secretary of the College of Cardinals, the cardinal Dean,
25:55
Speaker 1: the master of papal liturgical celebrations. Right, that's a swinging crowd,
25:59
Speaker 1: it is. And um, he says, oh please, really, really,
26:04
Speaker 1: this is great news. Thank you for for doing this,
26:08
Speaker 1: and the the Dean, I think, asked him a couple
26:10
Speaker 1: of questions. Yeah. I have a feeling it's way more
26:14
Speaker 1: official than what I would say, because they say, do
26:17
Speaker 1: you accept your canonical election? And supreme pontiff? I would say,
26:23
Speaker 1: you want to be pope? Are you sure you want
26:26
Speaker 1: to be pope? And then by what name do you
26:28
Speaker 1: wish to be called? And that you know, that's pretty
26:30
Speaker 1: straight up that you'd say that just like that, not
26:34
Speaker 1: say you want to be pope? What's your name? Give
26:37
Speaker 1: me the name? Yeah, and they say who's this guy?
26:39
Speaker 1: We need to know what to put on your seal? Yeah, exactly,
26:42
Speaker 1: they do. So the pope accepts, well, you know, I
26:47
Speaker 1: guess the pope is supposed to accept. I'm not sure
26:49
Speaker 1: if that's ever not happened. I can't imagine, because you
26:53
Speaker 1: would think they would withdraw their name earlier than that,
26:56
Speaker 1: you know, or if they had second thoughts, that probably
26:59
Speaker 1: pretty bad too, right. They were like, look, I just
27:02
Speaker 1: talked about it with my wife, and she's like, I
27:04
Speaker 1: don't know if we want to go into this chapter
27:06
Speaker 1: of our life. Let's let's just retire, okay. So each
27:10
Speaker 1: cardinal at that point, once the pope has the name
27:13
Speaker 1: and has said yes, I definitely want to be pope,
27:16
Speaker 1: they approached them pay homage to the new pope, probably
27:20
Speaker 1: kiss the ring, yeah, I would say, so. I wonder
27:23
Speaker 1: if they have the ring made up already, because you're
27:24
Speaker 1: supposed to have that thing on, like like that's basically
27:27
Speaker 1: like check it out, I'm I'm pope. I bet they do,
27:30
Speaker 1: I would imagine, because the only thing that could happen
27:33
Speaker 1: is the pope says I don't want to be a pope, yeah,
27:35
Speaker 1: and then they just make a new ring, you know,
27:38
Speaker 1: and they probably make the guy feel pretty bad too, like, well,
27:40
Speaker 1: are you sure because we made the ring and everything already.
27:43
Speaker 1: I bet this is all spelled out in some rule book,
27:45
Speaker 1: you know, like oft not oft used rules of the
27:49
Speaker 1: Catholic Church, like if they refuse, yeah, you strike them
27:52
Speaker 1: on the head with the silver hammer. Maybe so um so.
27:57
Speaker 1: Then traditionally, the oldest cardinal in the conclave steps that
28:00
Speaker 1: they're at St. Peters Square there on the balcony, which
28:03
Speaker 1: we've all seen a million times, and says habamus. Papam
28:07
Speaker 1: basically says, we have a new pope. And then the
28:10
Speaker 1: Pope comes out and the crowd goes wild like the Beatles,
28:15
Speaker 1: like it's serious stuff. Man, weeping in I know in
28:19
Speaker 1: in America it's not as I guess things have just
28:23
Speaker 1: changed a little bit. I'm sure there are people in
28:25
Speaker 1: United States that are still that moved. But you see
28:27
Speaker 1: people from around the world like collapsing and crying, and
28:31
Speaker 1: it's pretty amazing to watch pope papalmania paplemania. And so
28:37
Speaker 1: in the pope basically says, okay, let's do this. Here's
28:40
Speaker 1: my papal blessing. Good to meet you all. Let's go
28:45
Speaker 1: forth and spread Catholicism. That's right. We should do one
28:50
Speaker 1: on the pope at some point. Just about the duties.
28:52
Speaker 1: I mean, they have a few in here, appoints, bishops
28:55
Speaker 1: and cardinals, obviously spreading the good word, writing the official
29:00
Speaker 1: documents about issues like what our official stances stuff like that. Yeah,
29:04
Speaker 1: and then like getting world leaders to go along with them. Yeah.
29:08
Speaker 1: And you know, back in the day, the pope had
29:10
Speaker 1: a lot more sway in the h in the non
29:15
Speaker 1: religious sector, like I could. They could, I could listen
29:18
Speaker 1: to me. They could crown new emperors and like had
29:22
Speaker 1: military power and stuff like that. Yeah, like, um, one
29:24
Speaker 1: of the pope's crowned Charlemagne and started the Holy Roman Empire. Right,
29:30
Speaker 1: that was something that popes could do. I can't do
29:32
Speaker 1: that anymore. Um. And we we mentioned um Benedict changing
29:36
Speaker 1: the name, like they asked, what name do you want
29:38
Speaker 1: to go by? And there's actually an origin to this.
29:41
Speaker 1: Um Pope John the Second, he was elected in five
29:47
Speaker 1: thirty three and he was the one that started it
29:50
Speaker 1: because he was born his his birth name was Curious,
29:56
Speaker 1: named after Mercury, which is a pagan Roman god. Yeah,
30:00
Speaker 1: and he was like, I don't think I should have
30:03
Speaker 1: a pagan name as pope, so he changed his name
30:05
Speaker 1: to John the Second, and uh, there you have. That's
30:09
Speaker 1: where the tradition began. Yeah. And I think generally now
30:12
Speaker 1: they choose a name of a previous pope that they
30:15
Speaker 1: admired perhaps or a favorite saint or a favorite saint,
30:18
Speaker 1: and then they get on with the poping. Yep, I
30:21
Speaker 1: wonder what the new one. I'm really interested, you know,
30:24
Speaker 1: I'm pulling for the guy from Ghana. Yeah, I want
30:26
Speaker 1: to know what his name is gonna be too? Ah,
30:29
Speaker 1: you got anything else about the pope or the Papacy?
30:31
Speaker 1: I should say? No, the Potmobile pretty awesome car. Don
30:37
Speaker 1: you remember that? Yeah? Sure, when they came out with
30:40
Speaker 1: the bulletproof. Ah, like a tube that he sits in.
30:45
Speaker 1: It's pretty smart. He stands in and waits. It's a
30:49
Speaker 1: tall tune. That's right. Okay, Well, if you want to
30:53
Speaker 1: learn more about the Pokemobile, you can type the word
30:55
Speaker 1: Papacy p A P A C Y in the search
30:58
Speaker 1: part how stuff works dot com and um, I don't
31:02
Speaker 1: know what that'll well, Papasi will bring that that article
31:05
Speaker 1: if it won't bring anything up about the Popmobile. And
31:07
Speaker 1: I'm afraid, but just try try Potmobile and see what happens.
31:12
Speaker 1: Um my inn report walking to another universe. Since I
31:15
Speaker 1: said Potmobile, it means it's time for a listener mail.
31:20
Speaker 1: I'm gonna call this veterinaria Canadian vets. What's up? Friends?
31:25
Speaker 1: My name is Anne Marie and I'm a super fan
31:28
Speaker 1: veterinarian from Newfoundland, uh, Canada almost a Connecticut. I thought
31:33
Speaker 1: you're gonna say Kentucky. I discovered you in two thousand
31:37
Speaker 1: eleven when I went on maternity leave, and maternity leave
31:39
Speaker 1: here in Canada can be up to a full year.
31:41
Speaker 1: In addition to that, man, my daughter was born ten
31:44
Speaker 1: weeks early, so I was off for fourteen months. Holy cow,
31:49
Speaker 1: Creepily you both became my support system during this time.
31:52
Speaker 1: Luckily I came up upon the podcast at the time
31:54
Speaker 1: where they were around two episodes. I would push the
31:58
Speaker 1: stroller every day for at LEAs an hour and laugh
32:00
Speaker 1: out loud at your antics. I listened like clean cooked,
32:03
Speaker 1: and did various baby related duties. Uh. Now that I'm
32:07
Speaker 1: back at work, I eagerly await new episodes and have
32:09
Speaker 1: gone back and submitted to listening to episodes I dismissed
32:13
Speaker 1: previously as boring. I encourage people to do that. Oh yeah,
32:18
Speaker 1: like population is constantly a good one to go back.
32:21
Speaker 1: That's what she listened to. Did you know? She said?
32:24
Speaker 1: I listened to recently and happy to report that even
32:27
Speaker 1: how population works entertain me. I even listen at work,
32:31
Speaker 1: particularly when I'm doing a doggy surgery. You are a
32:33
Speaker 1: favorite while I'm doing a dental surgery. Actually, last week
32:36
Speaker 1: I listen to why do men have nipples? While working
32:39
Speaker 1: in the dog's mouth. Thanks for getting me through some
32:42
Speaker 1: difficult tooth extractions anyway, hats off to you both. I
32:45
Speaker 1: suffered from a mild case of hero worship. I wanted
32:48
Speaker 1: to say thanks. I don't know if I would call it.
32:51
Speaker 1: My daughter and I say woot Josh and Chuck and
32:55
Speaker 1: my husband says, not that podcast again, and I guess
32:59
Speaker 1: he slaps us for it. Yeah, so Amrie or something,
33:05
Speaker 1: you get out your own little silver hammer, tap your
33:08
Speaker 1: husband on the head and say, my daughter and I
33:10
Speaker 1: are getting smarter. Tap him very very very lightly lightly
33:14
Speaker 1: on think. So whoever a Marie's husband is, get get
33:18
Speaker 1: on the train. My friend maybe get a helmet soon.
33:21
Speaker 1: And she says awkward hugs and and thanks to Canada,
33:25
Speaker 1: thanks from or thanks to Canada too. I guess for
33:29
Speaker 1: that fourteen month paid leave to can't you see her
33:31
Speaker 1: like she's putting a dog under and she's like one
33:34
Speaker 1: for you, one for you, one for me with the
33:38
Speaker 1: gas all right, So thanks Amrie, and thanks to Canada
33:42
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