I can answer exactly one of these questions, which I guess isn't too bad for not being Catholic.

> How does one become elected pope? And it's a lifetime thing? So, is there any reason a pope would abdicate? Could he even do that? Could he be forced out? What type of reasons would there be for that?
>
> Would having a younger pope make any sort of difference in terms of his ability to fufill the role?
>
> What is this history of the position? Is there any biblical background?

Catholics consider St. Peter to have been the first Pope. Jesus called him the Rock, the foundation of the Church and gave him the keys to heaven (supposedly). And no, as far as I know, Jesus did not hand Peter a giant gold keyring with lots of jangly jeweled keys. I think it was symbolic. Anyway, there's a lot of controversy about the meaning of the action. It's not like there's anything where Jesus says, "Peter, you're going to be the Pope. This is what a Pope does." But that Biblical event is what started the whole thing, although an official Pope of the official Catholic Church didn't come around until quite a bit after that was written.
I won't swear by any of this--it's been a long time since I've read anything and I'm at work, so I don't have a Bible handy. Anyone, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. I'm no authority.

alissa