How to Use papacy in a Sentence

papacy

noun
  • He was selected by the cardinals for the papacy.
  • The chairmanship certainly has some of the pomp of the papacy.
    — Nick Paumgarten, The New Yorker, 14 June 2019
  • As viewers recall, this isn’t the first time that Law has de-clothed for his papacy role.
    — Natalie Stone, PEOPLE.com, 30 Aug. 2019
  • That's in keeping with past years of his papacy, which allow him a bit of a summer break.
    — Frances D'emilio, Chron, 18 July 2021
  • By the year 1800, the French Revolution was over, the ancien régime a thing of the past, the temporal power of the papacy crushed.
    — Claire Messud, Harper’s Magazine , 18 Jan. 2022
  • The papacy may have spooked Professor Ehrlich, but Italy has been there since 1976.
    — Kevin D. Williamson, National Review, 17 Mar. 2022
  • But the writings of the man born Joseph Ratzinger are the most significant legacy of his life and papacy.
    — The Editorial Board, WSJ, 31 Dec. 2022
  • The pope also appears to have accomplished the main goals of his papacy.
    — Grayson Quay, The Week, 7 June 2022
  • In his 10-year papacy, Pope Francis has opened some doors to women.
    — Elisabetta Povoledo, New York Times, 25 Oct. 2023
  • The Pope spent 38 days in Rome’s Gemelli hospital, the longest such stay of his papacy.
    — Joseph Wilkinson, New York Daily News, 6 Apr. 2025
  • Five years into Pope Francis’s papacy, the summer has been rocked by scandal for the Catholic Church.
    — Vox, 26 Aug. 2018
  • Robert Bellarmine and other defenders of the papacy held that the Church was Christ’s kingdom on earth, and the pope his vice-regent.
    — Nathaniel Peters, National Review, 17 Feb. 2022
  • The letter was a welcome salve in the battle that has raged throughout Francis’s papacy thus far.
    — Tara Isabella Burton, Vox, 19 Mar. 2018
  • Francis has spent the better part of his four-year papacy seeking to mend the ties, and last year hosted el-Tayeb at the Vatican.
    — Nicole Winfield, The Seattle Times, 27 Apr. 2017
  • Francis has made the hardships facing migrants the world over a key focus of his papacy.
    — Deutsche Welle, USA TODAY, 1 Jan. 2018
  • Pope Francis, whose papacy began in March 2013, is the first Jesuit pope.
    — Andrew Clark, Indianapolis Star, 20 June 2019
  • The fallout dogged Benedict from the beginning of his papacy.
    — Corky Siemaszko, NBC News, 31 Dec. 2022
  • Recent years—since the start of Francis' papacy—have seen some of the biggest crowds in anyone's memory.
    — Bernhard Warner, Fortune, 10 Apr. 2020
  • Now, the attention in the Vatican is on how the 88-year-old pontiff will lead the Catholic Church following what has been the worst health crisis of his papacy.
    — Christopher Lamb, CNN Money, 26 Mar. 2025
  • But Benedict quelled the noise by showing, for the first time in his papacy, the same deft touch that his predecessor had possessed in abundance.
    — Victor Gaetan, Foreign Affairs, 3 Apr. 2013
  • Six Indian saints have been canonized in the past 15 years, all but one under the papacy of Pope Francis.
    — Anant Gupta, Washington Post, 16 May 2022
  • The consistory comes at a fraught time in Francis’ six-year papacy.
    — Nicole Winfield, San Diego Union-Tribune, 6 Oct. 2019
  • Clothing has been such a flash point for debates around Francis’s papacy.
    — Jason Farago, New York Times, 20 May 2018
  • Even before the coronavirus, Francis no longer had the same global fanfare of the early years of his papacy.
    — Washington Post, 4 Oct. 2020
  • The Pope, who is traveling on the longest trip of papacy, landed in Jakarta on Tuesday.
    — Ines De La Cuetara, ABC News, 5 Sep. 2024
  • In my lifetime, every new pope has been a surprise choice except for Paul VI, who was a fixture in the curia through two papacies.
    — Howard Chua-Eoan, Mercury News, 22 Apr. 2025
  • The conversation Raphael creates across the room bridges the two worlds of the sacred and the secular, part of the larger effort advanced by Julius’s papacy.
    — Cammy Brothers, WSJ, 20 Jan. 2021
  • His was a papacy focused on the margins, on the dispossessed, and the most vulnerable.
    — ABC News, 27 Apr. 2025
  • But its unique architecture and relevance to both the papacy (this is where the Pope stayed during the war) makes it worth tacking on to your trip to the Vatican.
    — Laura Itzkowitz, Condé Nast Traveler, 5 Mar. 2018
  • Clearly, the pope is currently able to fulfill the most important duties of the papacy.
    — The Salt Lake Tribune, 23 June 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'papacy.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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