What are facts about papacy?

Answer 1

You have to be a exemplary priest (and maybe undergo extensive training) and a shrewd administrator to be a cardinal, and only cardinals are the ordinary candidates for the papacy.

Catholic AnswerThe papacy is the office established by Our Blessed Lord, Jesus Christ, with St. Peter (see Matthew 16:17-19) wherein He established His Vicar on earth. This is modeled after the prime minister in the Davidic Kingdom (see Isaiah 22:15-25), the office is guaranteed by Our Blessed Lord until the end of the world, and its holder is infallible when guiding the Church in matters of faith and morals.

from Modern Catholic Dictionary by John A. Hardon, S.J. Doubleday & Co., Inc. Garden City, NY 1980

Papacy. A term applied to the office and jurisdiction of the Pope as the Vicar of Christ on earth; and also to the papal authority viewed as a religious and social force in history since the beginning of the Christian era. It generally refers to the system of ecclesiastical government in the Catholic Church headed by the Pope. (Etym. Latin papa father)

Answer 2

The papacy is the system of ecclesiastical government in the Catholic Church headed by the Pope. There is a strongly held tradition that Peter was the first bishop of Rome and that Linus was his successor. However, it appears that this tradition began some time in the second century. Francis A. Sullivan says, in From Apostles to Bishops, that there is a general agreement among scholars, including Catholic scholars, that the church of Rome was led by a council of presbyters until well into the second century, with no evidence of a ruling bishop. The first monarchical bishop of Rome was probably either Pius I or Anicetus, in the middle of the second century.
At first, the bishop of Rome was elected by Roman laity and clergy, but eventually cardinals were given the task of electing the next pope. It soon became standard practice that the pope would always be elected from the same group. Popes could shore up their positions and those of their preferred successors by the appointment of compliant cardinals. Popes are always male and have varied between those having high moral character and those who were evil, between men of resolve and fortitude and those of weak character, easily manipulated by those around them. Some were concerned only with enjoying the fruits of office.

The pope is referred to in the Church as the vicar of Christ, but this was not always the case:

• The title “vicar of Peter” was used prominently by Pope Leo I (440-461) and taken up over the next eight centuries.
  
• Pope John VIII (872-882) referred to himself as the vicar of Peter and Paul.
  
• Innocent III (1198-1216) was the first pope to appropriate the title vicar of Christ: “We are the successor of the prince of the Apostles, but we are not his vicar or the vicar of any man or Apostle. we are the vicar of Jesus Christ himself.” Since that time, all Catholic popes have used this title.