Tag Archives: reign

‘Pope Francis’, When He Turns 85 On December 17, 2021, Will Rank 97th In Terms Of ‘Length Of Papacy’.

1 Reply

by Anura Guruge
on December 5, 2021

Click to ENLARGE. From one of my ‘magic’ papal Excel spreadsheets.
Click to ENLARGE. From my ‘Electing the Next Pope‘ (2021) book.

A few days ago, in my post about Pope Francis turning 85 & thus becoming the 7th oldest pope (as of 1400), I mentioned in passing that he has had ‘quite a good innings‘ (as we say in cricket) as to how long he has reigned. I knew that I would have to elaborate on this sooner than later. And yes someone raised this topic at once.

So, I went & did the sums.

96 popes (based on data we have/use) have reigned for longer; 170 for shorter.

The average length is 7.2 years. So, he has easily exceeded that.

In March 13, 2022, he would have been pope for 9 years. At that point he will go up by 4 in the rankings to #93 (or #92). Then he will start to climb up quite quickly. By the Summer of 2022 he will be around the #88 mark.

I will keep you posted. Easy enough to do. Just a question of making time.