Pope on a string

As a former Catholic I can't help but be interested when a pope wains. I reckon it's probably the world's longest running monarchy, in a way. I remember having a fantasy as a teenager about going into the clergy, becoming pope and then appearing for the first time in front of the world in Ace Frehley makeup. How cool would that be? You can't be fired. What would they do? I eventually decided that was a hell of a long time to wait for a punch line and went on to other things.