Some Fun Facts About the Popes for the Next Time Your Family Plays Trivial Pursuit

Summary

The web content provides a collection of interesting and lesser-known historical facts about various popes, aimed at enhancing one's knowledge for trivia games such as Trivial Pursuit.

Abstract

The article titled "Some Fun Facts About the Popes for the Next Time Your Family Plays Trivial Pursuit" presents a series of intriguing trivia about the popes throughout history. It covers Pope Francis' unique distinctions, historical precedents such as the first pope to take a new name, the origins of the pope's white attire, and various anecdotes like the shortest papacy and the longest. The piece also touches on the popes' involvement in cultural phenomena, their mobility advancements, language proficiency, and the potential for any baptized Catholic male to be elected as pope. The article concludes by suggesting that these facts might give readers an edge in trivia games.

Opinions

The author finds Pope Francis' background as a nightclub bouncer to be an amusing piece of trivia, expressing a hint of disappointment that it occurred before his papacy.
The tradition of popes wearing white is presented as an interesting historical choice by Pope Pius V, with the implication that such personal preferences can have lasting impacts.
Sixtus IV's establishment of the Vatican archives is noted with a touch of sarcasm, as it "unwittingly" enabled the creation of Dan Brown's novels.
Pope Paul VI's and Pope Benedict XVI's transportation choices are highlighted as significant milestones in papal history, with a subtle nod to the modernization of the papacy.
The article humorously points out the potential benefits of knowing papal trivia, such as being allowed to enter St. Peter's Basilica on horseback if knighted by the pope.
The author seems to appreciate the irony in the gift exchange between President Lyndon Johnson and Pope Paul VI, with Johnson's self-portrait bust contrasting with the pope's historically significant painting.
The endorsement of Pokémon by Pope John Paul II is presented as a surprising and positive intervention by the Church into popular culture.
The author appears to be amused by the idea that being pope significantly increases one's chances of sainthood, with a statistical reference to the percentage of popes who have been canonized.
The possibility of any baptized Catholic male becoming pope is mentioned with a historical context, hinting at the rarity and potential impracticality of electing a non-priest, as evidenced by the last such election in 1513.
The author seems to take a light-hearted approach to the papacy's intersection with contemporary culture, as evidenced by Pope Francis' appearance on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, challenging the notion of rock and roll as "devil music."

In case you get the history category

The emblem of the Papacy (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

Even the least-religious observers who were around in 2013 when Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio became Pope Francis will know some of the trivia about him: he is the first pope from Latin America, the first from the Western Hemisphere, the first Jesuit pope, the first to take the name Francis, and the first to have been a nightclub bouncer. It would be extra cool if he had done that gig after becoming pope, but sadly such is not the case.

These bits of useless information about Francis are fairly well known, but there is a lot of other trivia about the popes to be found over the 2,000-year history of the Church. I thought it would be fun to share just a smattering of it in case you get this category on Jeopardy someday.

The word “pope” itself simply means “father,” which is why in Italian he’s called “papa.”

Pope Pius V started the tradition of popes wearing white in 1566; it was the color of his Dominican Order habit, and he simply didn’t want to change it. Prior to this, popes had mostly worn red like cardinals do today.

The famous Sistine Chapel is named after the pope who built it, Sixtus IV. He also established the Vatican archives, unwittingly enabling Dan Brown to flood us with horrible novels more than 500 years later.

Pope Paul VI was the first pope to travel by airplane, and while Pope Benedict XVI never had a license to drive a car, he did have one to fly a helicopter and was the first pope to use the platform formerly known as Twitter.

While all popes today take a new name upon election, the first to do so was named Mercurius in 533. He was named after the Roman god Mercury and wisely believed that it was inappropriate to keep a pagan name as he led the Church. He chose the name John II instead.

The longest-reigning pope was Pius IX. His papacy lasted for 31 years, from 1846 to 1878. The shortest-reigning pope was Urban VII; he was pope for a mere 12 days before dying in 1590, though in that time he did manage to institute the first public smoking ban, threatening anyone who used tobacco products inside a church with excommunication.

Four popes have had the honor of being known as “the Great:” St. Leo, St. Gregory, St. Nicholas, and St. John Paul II. Conversely, four popes have the dubious honor of being named in Dante’s Inferno: Anastasius II in the Third Circle and Nicholas III, Boniface VIII, and Clement V in the Eighth Circle. You may remember this even if you dodged actually reading Dante in college; it shows up in the CliffsNotes.

Pope John Paul II was fluent in nine languages: Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Italian, French, German, Spanish, English, and Portuguese.

As we all know, the first pope was St. Peter, the apostle of Jesus. Since his death around 64 A.D., no subsequent pope has ever chosen the name Peter. In fact, two men who had the name Peter at birth took different names when they became pope; these were John XIV in 983 and Sergius IV in 1009.

The practice of using white smoke to announce the election of a pope started in 1914. Prior to this, bells were rung (and still are) and cannons were fired.

Just in case you think none of this trivia could ever really benefit you, consider this. For you equestrians, if you are awarded one of the five orders of knighthood by the pope (for example, the Knights of Malta), you are officially allowed to enter St. Peter’s Basilica on horseback. Something to aspire to.

As head of the Vatican City State, the pope will typically exchange gifts with visiting dignitaries and receive one in return. Perhaps the most uneven exchange ever occurred when U.S. President Lyndon Johnson visited Pope Paul VI just before Christmas 1967. The pope gave Johnson a beautiful 15th century painting; the president gave the pope a 12-inch bronze bust…of Johnson’s own head. I assume that it did not make it into the Vatican Museum.

We know popes often wade into the culture wars, and sometimes in surprising ways. In 2000, amid claims that Pokémon was somehow Satanic, John Paul II gave the popular film and card game his blessing, saying through Vatican media that Pokémon was “full of inventive imagination,” that it “had no harmful moral side effects,” and that the game was based on “ties of intense friendship.” It never hurts a marketing campaign to be endorsed by the pope.

If you dream of someday being enshrined in marble or stained glass as a Saint of the Church, becoming pope gives you a leg up on the competition. If you were a pope, you have roughly a 30% chance of also becoming a Saint. Of the 266 popes, 81 have been named Saints.

And for any of you hoping to one day be pope, know that by Canon Law you do not have to be a cardinal to be chosen. You don’t even have to be a priest, though you would be made a bishop before officially taking office since the pope is also the Bishop of Rome. Any baptized Catholic male can be named pope, though the last non-priest elected was Leo X in 1513. Given that his sale of indulgences to rebuild St. Peter’s Basilica helped lead to the Protestant Reformation four years later, maybe it’s a good thing he was the last non-priest elected.

We started with Pope Francis, and we’ll end with him, too. On February 13, 2014, he joined the likes of Dylan, McCartney, Springsteen, and Bono when he became the first pope in the Church’s 2,000-year history to grace the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. And to think some people call rock and roll “devil music.”

Credit: Rolling Stone magazine

These few bits of papal trivia are only the tip of the iceberg, of course. However, they just might help you finally beat your nine-year-old daughter the next time the family plays Trivial Pursuit.

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