Number Three on the All Time List


It may only be a footnote in reference books and the Vatican has not planned any celebration or festivity, but Pope John Paul II will reach another milestone in his papacy Sunday.

John Paul, who marked the 25th anniversary of his election as pope on Oct. 16, will surpass Pope Leo XIII to become the third-longest-serving pontiff in the history of the Roman Catholic Church.

"It's a beautiful thing, because it's a gift of our Lord," said Cardinal Paul Poupard, a Frenchman who has worked alongside the 83-year-old pope at the Vatican for several decades.

But even in an institution where life at the top often begins when prelates reach their 60s, some are asking whether term limits should be imposed for future popes.

One of the Vatican's most powerful officials, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, gave an indication of the thinking in an interview last month with an Italian religious affairs magazine.

Asked whether future popes may be elected to a fixed term, he said:

"The pope is selected for life because he is a father and his paternity comes before his role. Perhaps in the future, with life being prolonged, one also would consider new norms, but it doesn't seem to me to be a current issue."