IF we had a female Pope, what would her title be?

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PetraG said:
That’s like asking if a non-citizen or an underage candidate could be elected President.
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I am not aware of the rules for electing a US President. Perhaps you are right. Do you actually know?
However electing a Pope is a different matter and the traditional rules are likely to be quite different.
Can. 332 §1. The Roman Pontiff obtains full and supreme power in the Church by his acceptance of legitimate election together with episcopal consecration. Therefore, a person elected to the supreme pontificate who is marked with episcopal character obtains this power from the moment of acceptance. If the person elected lacks episcopal character, however, he is to be ordained a bishop immediately.
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Yes that seems partly apposite, unlike anything in OS. Does it say the unordained may not be elected? No it doesn’t. It says they can be elected but may not exercise full and supreme power. It says nothing about whether such an election is not legitimate. Quite the opposite.

Things are not quite as clear as our very logical poster above assumed they were…
A legitimately elected Pope without power is still a Pope! Haven’t seen any female exclusions for Pope-elect yet.

This is good fun isn’t it 😂.
 
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BlackFriar said:
Therefore, a person elected to the supreme pontificate who is marked with episcopal character obtains this power from the moment of acceptance. If the person elected lacks episcopal character, however, he is to be ordained a bishop immediately.
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Either way, the Pope must be a Bishop, which means he must be a Priest, which means he cannot be a woman
 
Okay, enough! We KNOW a woman can’t be a Pope—just either answer the question in good humor or go to another, more serious theological thread. Sheesh.
 
hey, it was all fun and games until it was implied that this could actually happen. I didn’t make this thread serious
 
TomS333 said:
The term “Pope” comes from Papa/Father, so IF we had a female Pope, would she still be a “Pope” or would she be called something else derived from a word meaning Mother.
I know it is highly unlikely to have a female Bishop of Rome, but times may change.
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  1. this will never happen because the Catholic Church will never have female priests and will never have female bishops.
However, I will humor you a little.

The title “Pope” is not the official title, “Supreme Pontiff” is. Pontiff is not necessarily, itself, a gender specific term. Non-Christians could use it for “Chief Priest” if they wanted to. Also, when addressing the Pope, you would address him as “Your Holiness.”

Even though Mark Wahlberg kept addressing Pope Francis to his face as “Father” and “Holy Father” at the World Meeting of Families, the correct address would be “Your Holiness.” Again, not gender specific.

So I would think most people would simply migrated to saying “the Pontiff”

But again, this will not happen.

God Bless!
 
Nope, it seems unordained laity may validly be Pope-elects.
Don’t see any female exclusion to that yet…can you?
 
In remarkably many more primitive cultures women may not step over things in case they pollute or jinx them (eg fishing nets). We need not go into the intimate details as to why.

Does that suggest they may not make good bridge-builders (Pontifex, Pontiff) as well?
 
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BlackFriar said:
If the person elected lacks episcopal character, however, he is to be ordained a bishop immediately.
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The CIC does not say ‘yeah, if a woman is elected, you can just chill on that ordination thing and just let her be a weird quasi Pope’

No, it says he must be ordained.

A she cannot be ordained
 
Maximilian75 said:
The CIC does not say ‘yeah, if a woman is elected, you can just chill on that ordination thing and just let her be a weird quasi Pope’
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It will soon enough once they normalize cannabis in the Church and make it the eighth sacrament. Can’t wait for that!
 
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BlackFriar said:
It says they can be elected but may not exercise full and supreme power.
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As I said, it is plausible that the ballots could be cast and counted and an ineligible candidate could garner sufficient votes. It is even possible that an ineligible candidate could falsely pose as an eligible candidate.

What cannot happen is for a woman to be ordained a bishop. The Church has no power whatsoever to do this, and as Pope St. John Paul II put it, this truth must be definitively held. Someone who is not a bishop at all cannot be Bishop of Rome. If the person is not Bishop of Rome, the person is not the Pope.
PetraG said:
Can. 331 The bishop of the Roman Church, in whom continues the office given by the Lord uniquely to Peter, the first of the Apostles, and to be transmitted to his successors, is the head of the college of bishops, the Vicar of Christ, and the pastor of the universal Church on earth. By virtue of his office he possesses supreme, full, immediate, and universal ordinary power in the Church, which he is always able to exercise freely.
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Not the Bishop of Rome? Not Pope. Why? The Supreme Pontiff is defined in canon law as identical to the Bishop of Rome. It is not like Queen Elizabeth being both Queen of England and Head of the Commonwealth of Nations. Those are two separate offices. Being Pope and being Bishop of Rome are the SAME OFFICE. Therefore, if it is impossible to make a bishop at all it is by the definition of Pope also impossible to make the person the Pope. Period.
BlackFriar said:
Does that suggest they may not make good bridge-builders (Pontifex, Pontiff) as well?
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You cannot be good at being something it is impossible for you to be at all.
 
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PetraG said:
As I said, it is plausible that the ballots could be cast and counted and an ineligible candidate could garner sufficient votes
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A non ordained person is not an ineligible candidate according to the Canon 332 you posted above. Perhaps you read that somewhere else.
If so do quote…

Until then it seems lay persons can be validly elected Pope
At this stage that still doesn’t seem to rule out women being elected Pope.

Valid Pope-elects are still Popes even if they may not yet be able to exercise any power.
So women can indeed be Popes so far as I can see 😂.

So this impossible topic wasn’t such a waste of time afterall.
I learnt something I never knew…unless you can find a more appropriate Canon.
 
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BlackFriar said:
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PetraG:
As I said, it is plausible that the ballots could be cast and counted and an ineligible candidate could garner sufficient votes
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A non ordained person is not an ineligible candidate according to the Canon 332 you posted above. Perhaps you read that somewhere else.
If so do quote…

Until then it seems lay persons can be validly elected Pope
At this stage that still doesn’t seem to rule out women being elected Pope.

Valid Pope-elects are still Popes even if they may not yet be able to exercise any power.
So women can indeed be Popes so far as I can see 😂.

So this impossible topic wasn’t such a waste of time afterall.
I learnt something I never knew…unless you can find a more appropriate Canon.
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I would think that the mere fact of being unable to ever fulfil the functions (ie exercise the power) of the office of Pope would in and of itself make you ineligible. I don’t think the Holy Spirit would merely want someone elected Pope in order to hold the title, wear the regalia and sit their behinds on the Papal throne without doing anything else.

I would say the same would apply, for example, if a 10-year-old boy or a Hindu were to be elected Pope.
 
I am simply interested in the legislation.
I don’t think that is a crime.
It is in fact quite interesting that the eligible candidate pool is wide…maybe so the HS can do his/her work.
 
BlackFriar said:
I am simply interested in the legislation.
I don’t think that is a crime.
It is in fact quite interesting that the eligible candidate pool is wide…maybe so the HS can do his/her work.
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Well, remember the legislation was written in a language other than English, for starters. And as with all legislation (which I know a little something about, being a lawyer) must be interpreted in the context in which it was made.

In short, with apologies to the Princess Bride, I do not think that the legislation means what you think it means 🙂
 
By all means interpret the legislation you refer to.
Latin is fine with me.
 
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