03/15/2004: "Pope John Paul II has third longest Papacy in history"

Pope John Paul II has been the Pope for over 25 years. That's a long time! I was only 3 years old when he was elected. Here's the Zenit article on the subject.

I remember about 5 years ago, I was reading a book that had a biography of every Pope from St. Peter to John Paul II. They didn't count St. Peter when they said that Pope Pius IX was Pope for 30 years. At the time I did some quick calculations and determine that John Paul II would have the longest Papacy in history sometime in 1999...

Oops!

No, that made him a decade away from having the longest Papacy in history. And to think some University gave me a degree in Engineering. I can't even add right.