Comment on Why are popes always really old?
AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world 2 days ago
The older the average pope, the shorter the average term, and the more papal elections in a given span of time.
One of the main powers of cardinals is electing the pope, so more papal elections means more power for the cardinals.
It doesn’t really makes much sense.
The amount of power is the same. They don’t get more power by voting a pope every 5 years rather than every 30 years. They still vote for the pope, the person in that position is always there because it was voted by the Cardinals.
The amount of power is the same
There is only one pope seat at a time which they can influence. But that’s not a complete measurement of all the power involved.
Think of fit this way. Every time there’s an election, everyone comes out to kiss their ass and offer favors and so on to they themselves or “their guy” elected. If elections happen only every 20 years, then this ass-kiss-fest only happens every 20 years.
They’d rather it happen every 5 years.
Mmm smart.
gigachad@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
I guess this is a side effect, but I doubt it is the reason.
AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world 2 days ago
It’s an emergent phenomenon—institutions will naturally behave in ways that increase their power without that being the conscious intention of any given member.