The papacy is the oldest continuously functioning institution in the world. To put that fact into perspective, consider that when George Washington was elected our nation's first president, the 250th pope was already reigning.
More than one billion Roman Catholics throughout the world look to the pope each day for guidance and leadership. And at the death of John Paul II last year, more than four million people streamed into Rome to pay their respects as he lay in state, with the world's media focused for weeks on the events of his illness, his passing, and the process of choosing his successor.
Yet in spite of the breadth of any pope's influence on the world stage—influence that has not only religious, but geopolitical, legal, social, artistic, and cultural repercussions unequalled by any other individual—how many of us really understand this most venerable of the world's institutions?
What is the idea behind the “Petrine Office”—the idea that answers the question, “Why is there a pope?” How are popes chosen? What kinds of men have been included among the 265 who have borne the title?