Picking the Pope's Domain Name

April 2005

If the newly elected pope wants his own website, he'll have to talk to Rogers Cadenhead first.

The Jacksonville, Florida-based writer purchased the rights to BenedictXVI.com on April 1 -- more than two-and-a-half weeks before Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger announced that he would assume the papacy under the name of Benedict XVI.

In an interview shortly after Ratzinger's announcement Tuesday, Cadenhead said the purchase of the domain name was more of an educated guess than divine guidance.

Newly elected popes often take the names of previous popes in honor of them. So when media reports last month revealed that Pope John Paul II was in his final hours, Cadenhead worked out the possible names that the new pope might select and set out to buy those domains.

He ended up buying six in all -- including ClementXV.com, InnocentXIV.com, LeoXIV.com, PaulVII.com and PiusXIII.com. Some domains, like JohnPaulIII.com and JohnXXIV.com, already were taken.