"Has anyone noticed anything, uh, strange about the Pope?"

[Minchandre]

There is most certainly such a requirement, but there appears to be some way of slipping past it.

This is far from the first post about a Muslim or Orthodox Pope, so...

 

[unmerged(209891)]

Suddenly that old phrase "Is the Pope Catholic?" just became much more ambiguous. Now I'm not certain if bears even shit in the woods.

 

[unmerged(212811)]

Actually; I think I figured out how this might have happened.

Step 1: Do some unknown set of actions
Step 2: That unknown set of actions concludes with the Pope becoming the vassal of another (either a King or Emperor), because the Pope is technically a special type of Duke.
Step 3: Have this subject-Pope think that, due to extremely low relations with his liege, it is a good idea to either press the "Convert to religion of liege lord" or "Convert to culture of liege lord"
Step 4: Have the subject-Pope activate the decision not chosen in Step 2 here some time later
Step 5: Due to Steps 3 and 4, and the effects of the decisions enacted in either or both steps, the Pope is no longer European and/or Catholic
Step 6: Hilarity and head-scratching ensues.

Now, exactly what you have to do in Step 1, I'm not entirely sure...but whatever happened there it seems pretty obvious that the Pope enacted Steps 3 and 4, pressing the appropriate "wrong culture/religion" decisions at some point.

The pope is not a duke, he's a king. A titular king title is still a king title.
Also, CK2 distinguishes between "culture" and "graphical culture." An Englishman's son raised by a Bedouin will come back Bedouin, but still white.

 

[witekgreg]

Its really funny to me when I see a medieval pope of Bedouin, Russian, Polish or Andalusian culture

Only cultures occurring in HRE's provinces should be allowed for the new Pope.

 

[Olaus Petrus]

Its really funny to me when I see a medieval pope of Bedouin, Russian, Polish or Andalusian culture

Only cultures occurring in HRE's provinces should be allowed for the new Pope.

So, you would suggest that popes should be German and Bohemian? I don't remember any Bohemian popes, but there were plenty of Italian and French popes during CK's timeperiod. One English pope and one from Portugal. There was also a Spanish pope, but that was few years after CK's timeperiod. And then there was one antipope from Crete.

 

[magitsu]

At least there won't be a problem with your Bishops sending money to infidel Pope.
Unless it turns to a nightmare with papal investiture installing muslims into your bishoprics.

 

[Seek75]

Its really funny to me when I see a medieval pope of Bedouin, Russian, Polish or Andalusian culture

Only cultures occurring in HRE's provinces should be allowed for the new Pope.

Why can't we have Bedouin, Russian, Polish, or Andalusian Popes?

As far as I'm concerned, culture shouldn't matter for the Papacy, because IRL it didn't.