question bout the pope

[Hirosito]

basically i've got the papal states and i got the message that the pope now lives in exile and all that. how do i put in a puppet pope or something. is there a need to? do i need him to authorise crusades?

thx guys

[NateEngle]

Evacuate Italy and let those provinces fall into rebellion. That way when the new pope is chosen he won't immediately be at war with you. You definitely need for a pope to be in play in order to launch crusades, but I've yet to see a crusade that really impressed me all that much besides the ones I've launched myself (and properly supported). Sucking troops out of enemies loses some of its luster when you realize what a bunch of genetic throw-backs and losers your AI opponents have working for them.

[Brutal DLX]

No, you don't need to do anything yourself to install a puppet pope, that is done "automatically in the background". But since it isn't the real Pope, neither you nor anyone else can deploy crusades anymore.
Also bear in mind that you can never get rid of the real Pope completely, from time to time he will lead rebellions in Rome or the Papal States to re-instate himself into office. These rebel armies usually consist of large, well equipped troops which requires you to place a large stationary army in Rome to defend. A lot of people including myself think that this is not worth the trouble and decide to wait taking on the Pope until the end of the campaign, or simply make him retreat into a small, unimportant province like Papal States and confine him there.
If you browse through this forum, you'll find various threads on how to deal with the Pope.