What is the popes religion?

We I was growing up I used to think he was a catholic however over the years I have started to doubt this. Firstly whenever I would ask someone a question they would say to me " Is the pope a catholic?" now if it were just one or two I would have dismissed it as the person being of the tinfoil brigade. However the shear number of people who have said this to me over the years leads me to think people are genuinely confused as to the popes religion, what has lead to this confusion over the popes religion, will there allways be confusion over his religion and what is the popes religion any way as I am no longer sure the pope is a catholic.