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Sorry, I became irritated and posted without thinking.

I'll try not to do it again.

I found the orphaned posts and added them back to this thread. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Thanks for clearing that point up for me; it makes sense...now what would REALLY have surprised me is if MY name had been on the list of cardinal-designates.

Just to cover all bases, I thought he was talking about the Pope of ROME. It wouldn't be good to forget about the Coptic Orthodox Pope of Alexandria, Pope Shenouda 3rd.

Several years ago he visited the Dallas/Ft. Worth area - a banquet was held in his honor & he was introduced by the mayor of the suburb where the event was held. The poor man introduced him as "Pope Shenoody of the Coptic Orthodontic Church".

That just beat all. I swear this is true. I'm insufficiently original to have invented it.

I'm eversopleased to have been there for it.

(1) We have no disagreement on this. My point though was that there are no rules precluding one of the 80 and over cardinals to be elected as the next Pope.

Can you please cite the source of your quoted statement: ". . . any baptized Catholic man can be elected pope"? Should we not qualify that Catholic man to be at least 18 years old?

(2) Electing the next Pope is just one of the functions of the College of Cardinals, although it is, visibly, its most important function. Thus, although the 80 and over cardinals do not take part in the conclave, they help run the Catholic Church during the interregnum through the various congregations they must attend. In more ways than one, the title "Cardinal" is NOT honorary!

I can't cite one particular source, because it is hard to prove a negative. The laws of the Church are silent on the requirements or qualifications for papal candidates (cf. CIC cann. 331-335 [vatican.va]; Apostolic Constitution Universi Dominici Gregis [vatican.va]). In fact, the laws are more concerned with the qualifications of the electors than of the person to be elected. Therefore, it seems the only absolute requirements are those provided by divine law, i.e. that the person should be male and baptized, or at least willing to be baptized. This is because by divine law no one can receive the sacrament of ordination without being male and baptized. All the rest (age, academic qualifications, previous experience etc.) is Church law, not divine law.

Of course this is all highly theoretical. I believe the last non-cardinal to be elected pope was Bartolomeo Prignano, Archbishop of Bari, who reigned as Pope Urban VI [en.wikipedia.org] from 1378 to 1389. In practice, therefore, there is virtually no chance that anyone except a cardinal is going to be elected pope. It is also highly unlikely that anyone over 80 would be elected. I understand the oldest person to be elected pope was 79-year-old Cardinal Emilio Bonaventura Altieri, who reigned as Pope Clement X [en.wikipedia.org] from 1670 to 1676. In the end, though, it is for the cardinal-electors to assess the suitability of papal candidates, and successive popes have, perhaps wisely, deemed it best not to restrict their choice.

Agreed. It is a frequently used, but somewhat misleading description.

Given the past tense used, namely "was", I think the correct answer is that John Paul II, "was the last", while Benedict XVI is the current . . .