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Electing A New Pope: The Conclave Past & Present
Electing A New Pope : The Conclave and All That
This site has a few articles on papal elections - of John Paul II and Benedict XVI and on other matters connected with the Popes/Vatican by the expert Vatican watcher
Prof. George Menachery
Prof. George Menachery, freelance journalist and editor of reference volume St.Thomas Christian Encyclopaedia of India, Indian Church History Classics etc.
JOHN PAUL II
At the Beginning and End of His Ministry as Pope
Prof. George Menachery
This Pope-Watcher is struck by the contrast between the Pope when he was elected in 1978 and the pitiable yet unyielding John Paul II as he came through in TV clippings towards the end of his life.
The healthy robust figure of the mountain-climbing, kayak-rowing, play-acting, quarry-working Karol Joseph Cardinal Woyityla had impressed me immensely then in October 1978, both on the day the conclave started (Oct. 14.) and on the day he was elected Pope(Oct.16) and finally and especially on the day of the commencement of his ministry (Oct.22) and also in the following days and years.
Ever since he was admitted to the Gemelli Hospital at the beginning of February (2005) the BBC and the CNN - as well as other channels - had been giving a large amount of space to Pope John Paul II. The scene shown a few days before his demise where the doves refused to leave the pontiff alone in his room, and the scene broadcast again and again by the channel where the frail pontiff blesses the cardinals and the people with great difficulty naturally reminds one of the contrast between the John Paul II of 1978 and of recent months. These scenes brought to my memory the Pope energetically and enthusiastically parading the thirty-two steps of the portico of the St. Peter s Basilica in 1978, lightly carrying the heavy ( ten pounds) cross of the universal shepherd during the ceremonny for the commencement of his papal ministry when he was elected Pope at the age of fifty six.
However the Pope s refusal to surrender to sickness or death without a fight is a very miracle that exhibits his pro-life attitude much more strongly than his remarkably strong words and encyclicals, his books and articles.
To tell others how to suffer is easy enough, but John Paul showed in his life how one could convert suffering forming part of doing one's duty into a real joy - and how a Christian aught to suffer until the very end in a spirit of serenity and gladness. Hours before his death the youth of Rome and the world were singing and praying for the pope in the St. Peter s square. The Pope told the cardinal who was visiting him, All my life I was searching and seeking for the young people. Now they have come searching for me. . The days and years the Pope had spent in the company of the youth - singing, dancing, kayaking, skiing, ...he was showing that his hope for the Church was in the youth. And at the end the youth showed how they took him for a real companion and a friend and guide.
Again , hours before his death he summoned all the rev. sisters who were in the service of the papal household. And he admonished them saying There must be no tears . And the lakhs and lakhs of people who assembled in the Square during the last days of John Paul and during the burial services often danced and sang and clapped their hands - so much so Cardinal Ratzinger (now Benedict XVI) had a hell of a time trying to complete his funeral oration, as we all saw. It was a living demonstration for John Donne's poem "Death be not proud", who's afraid of you.
The huge crowd of heads of states (a president and two ex-presidents of the US among them) who attended the funeral ceremonies were doing
so not simply due to poitical custom, but because they felt here indeed was a person who was larger than life.
[For some of the changes made by John Paul II, and his predecessors in the secret election processes at the Vatican cf. the article Electing a New Pope: The Conclave and All That...by Prof. Menachery, vide supra]
Electing a new Pope: The Conclave and all that
Prof. George Menachery
ONE
Many Popes have altered the rules for the conduct of the gathering of the cardinals called the Conclave (con = with, clavis = key – that is, behind locked doors) which elects the new Pope. Pope John Paul II has added {Universi Dominici Gregis, Shepherd of the Lord's Whole Flock - 1996) to the many significant changes made by Pope Paul VI (1967, 1970, 1975). Of these changes in procedure made by John Paul II one will have very far reaching consequences. According to Pope Paul VI’s rules the winning candidate had to get two-thirds plus one votes of the number of cardinals present and voting.
Simple Majority may be sufficient in 2005 Conclave
In John Paul’s rules the necessary number for election is only two- thirds (only if the total is not divisible by three it must be two-thirds plus one); but what is to the point: after 30 elections if still there is a deadlock and no one has obtained the necessary two thirds majority then the cardinals could decide to elect the person who secures a simple majority of fifty percent plus one. This means that if a cardinal gets 50% plus one at the beginning his supporters could simply sit out and wait for the 30th election to be over, when he could be elected with the same number of votes that he polled at the commencement of the election. The very much more comfortable beds and rooms which will be made available to the cardinals this time could make such a waiting for many days feasible, which could not have been imagined in the previous elections where the cardinals were housed in hallways and corridors on folding cots with inadequate conveniences. In fact when I visited the conclave area in and adjoining the Sistine Chapel in 1978 October, two days before the beginning of the last Conclave, as a specially selected representative of the press, with 59 other fellow journalists (out of a total of 1300 accredited media representatives, this time I am told there might be more than 4000) we found the accommodation provided for the cardinals much less satisfactory even than the amenities provided by the cheapest pensione. This time over, although the election takes place in the Sistine Chapel, the cardinals will live in the five-story Domus Sanctae Marthae, a Vatican residence with 105 two-room suites and 26 single rooms, some thousand odd feet from the Apostolic Palace, built in 1996. The rooms, as in previous Conclaves, will be allotted by lot. Last time the Cardinal from Krakow Karol Wojtyla got room number 91 in the Conclave area. As a result of the present change in rules it is almost certain that a Cardinal with Pope John Paul II’s views is almost sure to be elected since out of the 117 Cardinals under 80 eligible to vote 114 have been elevated to the post by John Paul II himself, most of whom reportedly with the same outlook as Pope John Paul II himself. It is my personal opinion that this part of the regulation will have much opposition in the coming days and most probably the next Pope will considerably dilute this clause so as to avoid hardline stances, because as it is there is not much meaning for the two-thirds stipulation. Under these circumstances chances of Cardinals who have received much exposure during the recent papacy and the recent ceremonies and who also have contacts and knowledge of languages on their side will be considerable.
Secret, Top Secret
Each and every step in the present system of electing the Pope has developed from differing experiences, situations, and circumstances down the centuries… and to study these developments is most interesting and quite rewarding.
In 1271 the 17 Cardinals started the election at Viterbo, 40 miles from Rome. On account of various external pressures they could not agree on a Pope for two years and a half. Finally the angry people intervened. They locked in the Cardinals and even closed all holes in the walls with bricks. They even punished the reluctant electors by taking off the roof of the building, subjecting the Cardinals to the wrath of nature. And they were even starved.
Finally the Cardinals arrived at a compromise: they elected a six member committee from among themselves to take a decision for them. Thus was elected blessed Gregory X. Naturally he was forced to begin the process of today’s secret conclave because of this experience. 700 years ago at Lyons were established the first Conclave rules. Many of the Popes, including John Paul II have made changes in these rules “What leads me to take this step is awareness of the Church's changed situation today and the need to take into consideration the general revision of Canon Law which took place… While keeping in mind present-day requirements, I have been careful, in formulating the new discipline, not to depart in substance from the wise and venerable tradition already established” –JPII. John Paul II has forbidden the 2005 Conclave to elect a Pope by the Compromise or Committee method.
Fortunately no 20th century papal election had lasted more than a week. Pius X was elected in a day. To elect Pope John XXIII the 51 Cardinals of his day took only three days. 111 Cardinals coming from the five continents found their leader in the Pope of the eternal smile John Paul I in a single day. John Paul II himself was elected in the seventh poll on the third day of the Conclave.
Conclaves and the Sistine Chapel
It was originally permitted to have the election anywhere. Elections have taken place in many different towns of France and Italy. It was Pope Clement the VII of the Medici family – the illegal son of a Medici – who ordered that all papal elections must take place in Rome. Now the elections must take place in the Vatican only. Though there was no objection to having the election anywhere in the Vatican the Cardinals have traditionally preferred the Sistine Chapel for the election. And they could not be blamed for that. If asked which is the most beautiful man-made space in the world many art lovers would not hesitate to reply “The Sistine Chapel in the Vatican Palace”. Every square inch of this chapel – whether it is the ceiling, the walls, the floor…of this 136”x 48”x 86” structure depicts the works of the best known renaissance artists – Perugino, Ghirlandhao,..and of course Michelangelo.
The great warrior Pope Julius II asked Michelangelo to paint the ceiling of the chapel with stars and traditional decorations. “Painting is not my trade”, said Michelangelo. “I am a sculptor. You may give this job to Raphael,” he said to the Pope. Finally he agreed to do the job so that he could get the commission to sculpt the marble tomb of the Pontiff. Michelangelo believed sculpture much superior to painting, and had many arguments with Da Vinci on the matter. Today the ceiling, some 86 feet above ground, is filled with the incomparable 5600 sq. ft. series called the Genesis or the Creation. After many years the altarpiece of the chapel, 2000 sq. ft., was also painted by Michelangelo himself – The Last Judgment. These four hundred years and more the Last Judgment has been attracting millions of art lovers every year from all over the world.
No wonder John Paul II orders the Conclave – the actual election of the Pope to take place under these paintings. “At the same time, in view of the sacredness of the act of election and thus the need for it to be carried out in an appropriate setting where, …and where, on the other, the electors can more easily dispose themselves to accept the interior movements of the Holy Spirit, I decree that the election will continue to take place in the Sistine Chapel, where everything is conducive to an awareness of the presence of God, in whose sight each person will one day be judged.”
TWO
In the year of the three Popes - 1978 when this writer had an opportunity to examine the secret arrangements of the Conclave the floors of the Sistine and environs had already been paved with timber to level the floor. Thrones for the Cardinals and utensils for the conduct of the election were already in place. Touching all those paraphernalia brought to mind some special features of that most secret of election processes.
Anybody can be Pope, even a layman or in theory at least even a non-Christian. In the first 800 years of Christianity it was the deacons of Rome who became Popes. It was only after that period that a bishop became Pope. However in the last 700 years only Cardinals have been elected to the position, except Gregory the XVI in 1831 who was not yet a bishop when elected. From1523 to October 1978 papacy was the monopoly of Italians, so to say.
True, Peter was from outside Italy. But of his 264 successors to-date only 59 have come from outside Italy. 15 Greeks, 15 Frenchmen, 6 Germans, 6 Syrians, 3 North Africans, 3 Spaniards, 2 Dalmatians, 2 Goths, 1 Thracian, 1 Englishman, 1 Portuguese, and 1 of Dutch origin – the nationality of another one is not clear – and finally John Paul II, a Polaco.
Sylvester I the first French Pope (999 – 1003) was a great scholar and is thought to have been the model for Dr. Faustus.
Nicolas Breakspeare was the only Englishman to occupy Peter’s throne and he took the name Adrian IV (1154 – 59). Though a second Englishman has also been elected he refused to become Pope.
In 1305 the ongoing conflicts between the imperialists and the republicans split the city states of Italy so that the seat of the Pope had to be shifted outside Italy to Avignon in France. For well nigh three quarters of a century Avignon remained the seat of corruption and greed until Pope Gregory XI restored the seat of papacy to Rome.
Both the foreign Popes of the 15th century were members of the notorious Borgia family of Spain. They, Calistus III and his nephew Alexander VI, made the papacy a family affair. Pope Alexander the Sixth made four of his nephews and an illegitimate son Cardinals. The Borgias made poisoning into a fine art. The attempt of the Borgia father and son to poison a rival misfired when Pope Alexander drank the poisoned drink by mistake and died within a week When one enters the Borgia rooms in the Vatican Palaceone trembles with fear in spite of the Raphael paintings. The person elected from outside Italy before John Paul II was the Dutch Adrian. He had to face the consequences of Martin Luther’s revolt. When Adrian, who had confessed the errors of the Church and had tried to correct them, died there was no one to mourn his death. A floral crown appeared at the door of the Palace Doctor who had failed to save the Pope. Because of that Dutch Curse no one had been elected Pope from outside Italy for 455 years, until 1978.
Although Indian Catholics form only a small portion of the Catholic population of the world some three percent of the electoral college com
Indian Christianity
Electing A New Pope [with pics]
Vatican Adventure: Pope John Paul II Election Surprises
Election of Pope-Conclave-New Rules
Last Days of Pope John Paul II -His Ideas and Ideals
THOMAPEDIA Kerala Syrian Christian Encyclopedia
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