::Thanks for providing those references. I haven't looked at the archives of Talk:Pope John Paul II yet, but have looked at List of popes, which said (when I looked at it): 
 :::On that basis, the current Pope Benedict XVI is the 265th pope. However, Benedict is commonly recognized as the 266th pope, since in 1978, the Vatican acknowledged the legitimacy of the papacy of Stephen II. 
 ::However, when I went back to it a few minutes later, I found that the second sentence of that extract had been deleted by another editor. 
 ::I then looked at Pope Stephen II, and found that it says: 
 :::The Holy See does not consider Stephen II as a pope (and, in 1959, deleted his name from its official list of popes), but many historians do. 
 ::It said nothing about the Vatican acknowledging the legitimacy of his papacy in 1978. 
 ::My Hardon book, referred to above, says that he died "before his consecration as Bishop of Rome, which, according to the canon law of that day, would have marked the beginning of his pontificate." 
 ::My preference would be to stick with the official Vatican count, and to leave it as 265.