Updated April 19, 2007
With the election of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI in 2005, there have been 265 popes in the history of the Roman Catholic Church. The pope is the spiritual leader of Roman Catholicism and the visible head of the Roman Catholic Church. He is the successor to St. Peter, the first among the apostles and the first pope of Rome. The following list gives the names of the popes of the Modern Age and the years that they reigned.
Nineteenth Century
252. Leo XII (1823-29)253. Pius VIII (1829-30)
254. Gregory XVI (1831-46)
255. Blessed Pius IX (1846-78)
256. Leo XIII (1878-1903)
Twentieth Century
257. St. Pius X (1903-14)258. Benedict XV (1914-22)
259. Pius XI (1922-39)
260. Pius XII (1939-58)
261. Blessed John XXIII (1958-63)
262. Paul VI (1963-78)
263. John Paul I (1978)
264. John Paul II (1978-2005)
265. Benedict XVI (2005—)
