The pope
is the head of the Roman Catholic Church. The office or institution associated with the pope is called the papacy. The pope rules the church much as a king rules a country.
The pope does many things. He has an organization called the Roman Curia to help him. The pope decides the church’s position on issues. He has the power to call ecumenical councils, which are general meetings that decide church policy. The pope also appoints clergymen called bishops and assigns them to regions called dioceses. A bishop is in charge of all the Catholic churches within his diocese.
The pope himself is the bishop of Rome, Italy. He rules Vatican City, which lies within Rome’s borders but is a separate country. Vatican City is all that remains of the Papal States, a region of Italy that the popes ruled from 756 to 1870.
The pope is elected to his position. Only the highest-ranking bishops, who are called cardinals, have votes. After a pope dies, all the cardinals under age 80 gather in a building called the Sistine Chapel. There they secretly vote for a new pope. White smoke from the chapel chimney is the signal that a new pope has been elected.
Catholics consider Saint Peter, who died in about 64 ce, to be the first pope. Peter was one of the 12 disciples, or first followers, of Jesus Christ. Since then there have been more than 260 popes.
During the Middle Ages, which lasted from about 500 ce to about 1500, unhappy cardinals sometimes chose their own popes. These unofficial popes are now known as antipopes. Beginning in 1378, during the Great Western Schism, there were popes in Avignon, France, and in Rome. By 1417, however, the cardinals had agreed on one pope. Since then, every pope has lived in Rome.
In 2013 Pope Benedict XVI announced that he would resign the office because of ill health. He was the first pope to resign since Gregory XII in 1415. Every other pope since Gregory had served until he died. Benedict took the title of pope emeritus after he resigned on February 28. A new pope was chosen on March 13. Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio from Argentina became Pope Francis I. He was the first pope from the Americas.
