--- title: What Jobs Have Popes Held Outside the Church? description: Some of the 20th century popes had some interesting jobs before they took to the cloth. authors: - name: Ethan Wolff-Mann url: https://money.com/author/ethan-wolff-mann/ at_money_since: 2015 articles: 160 covers: - Career Advice - Banking - Business - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Personal Finance - Professional Services - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://x.com/ewolffmann former_staff: true published: '2015-09-23T19:09:37.000Z' modified: '2024-04-16T06:54:57.000Z' section: Career Advice tags: - Careers - first jobs - pope - pubdesk word_count: 284 canonical: https://money.com/pope-jobs-not-religious/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Ratzinger and Bergoglio](https://img.money.com/2015/09/gettyimages-456242698.jpg) *Pope emeritus Benedict XVI speaks with Pope Francis during a papal mass for elderly people at St Peter's square on September 28, 2014.* Like many career politicians, plenty of popes have spent their working years completely within the church, beginning at a young age in pre-seminary. But while even pontiffs from the 20th century had careers completely entrenched in religious life, the two most popular popes in recent history have had jobs of the people, so to speak. ### Pope Francis In 2013, the current Pope, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio revealed that he had worked as a [bar bouncer](http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/12/03/pope-francis-reveals-used-to-work-as-bouncer/) in Buenos Aires when he was younger, in addition to sweeping floors as a janitor. He also worked the morning shift as a technician in a chemical lab, controlling the raw substances. He kept in contact with his former co-workers and "celebrated their marriages," [a former co-worker said](http://contenidos2.clarin.com/edicion-electronica/20130317/index.html#/8/). ### Pope Benedict XVI The pope formerly known as Joseph Alois Ratzinger didn't really have much of a career outside of the clergy, but he was a soldier in *Wehrmacht* during the World War II. He set anti-tank traps and worked in an antiaircraft unit before he deserted just before the war ended in April 1945. He never saw any action on the front lines. ***Read Next: [The Pope's Retirement Package Is Better Than Yours](https://money.com/pope-retirement-package/)*** ### Pope John Paul II The political unrest in pre-war Poland enabled Karol Józef Wojtyła to be a librarian, playwright, restaurant messenger, [quarry laborer](http://www.vatican.va/news_services/press/documentazione/documents/santopadre_biografie/giovanni_paolo_ii_biografia_breve_en.html) and chemical factory worker before he became Pope John Paul II. If the Vatican continues to choose popes with more diverse backgrounds, we may see leaders with even more interesting resumés sometime soon. ***Read Next:*** ***You Can Buy a Bike Just Like the One Pope Francis Is Getting*** ***[All Of The Crazy Ways People Are Cashing In On The Pope’s Visit To The U.S.](https://money.com/pope-francis-america-merchandise/?)*** ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/pope-jobs-not-religious/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Career Advice", "item": "https://money.com/career-advice/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Jobs", "item": "https://money.com/jobs/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "What Jobs Have Popes Held Outside the Church?" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/pope-jobs-not-religious/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/pope-jobs-not-religious/", "name": "What Jobs Have Popes Held Outside the Church?", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2015-09-23T19:09:37.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/pope-jobs-not-religious/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/pope-jobs-not-religious/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-04-16T06:54:57.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "What Jobs Have Popes Held Outside the Church?", "articleSection": "Career Advice", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2015/09/gettyimages-456242698.jpg", "width": 4928, "height": 3280, "caption": "Ratzinger and Bergoglio" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Ethan Wolff-Mann", "url": "https://money.com/author/ethan-wolff-mann/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/ethan-wolff-mann/#author", "sameAs": [ "https://x.com/ewolffmann" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2015-09-23T19:09:37.000Z", "description": "Some of the 20th century popes had some interesting jobs before they took to the cloth.", "abstract": "Some of the 20th century popes had some interesting jobs before they took to the cloth.", "@id": "https://money.com/pope-jobs-not-religious/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2024-04-16T06:54:57.000Z", "wordCount": 284, "keywords": [ "Careers", "first jobs", "pope", "pubdesk" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Career counseling", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Career_counseling" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Jobs", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jobs" ] } ] } ] } ```