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RELIGION: New Pope Will Emerge From a Holy Lock-Up

Hilmi Toros*

ISTANBUL, Apr 8 2005 (IPS) - Whether Latin American, African, Asian or European, the successor to Pope John Paul II will be elected through a uniquely secret gathering of the electoral College of Cardinals. The Pope will be elected at a conclave, which in Latin means locked up ‘with key’.

Whether Latin American, African, Asian or European, the successor to Pope John Paul II will be elected through a uniquely secret gathering of the electoral College of Cardinals. The Pope will be elected at a conclave, which in Latin means locked up ‘with key’.

Precautions are in place after turbulence and intrigues plagued some past ones. This one beginning Apr. 18 will have strict norms laid out, some put in place by the deceased Pontiff, to allow for an orderly and unimpeded transition.

Pope John Paul II altered the election process. It is not known how long this conclave could last, but it is unlikely to last as long as some have.

In the past, a two-thirds majority of voting Cardinals was needed to elect a Pope. That still stands, but if electors cannot come up with a Pope with a two-thirds majority after voting 34 times, then a simple majority will do. Cardinals can also decide in a kind of run-off between the top two vote getters.

What goes on in the conclave and how the election process proceeds will be secret. The outside world will not know who was proposed, and who seconded, and by whom.


The last three popes were elected within less than a week – a far cry from the election begun in the year 1268 after the death of Pope Clement IV, when 17 Cardinals could not come up with a Pope for almost three years. That prompted the faithful to finally lock them in ‘with key’, tear down the roof of the building where deliberations were taking place, and feed them just bread and water to hasten their decision.

Election was entrusted to just cardinals from the year 1059 after a history of assassinations, and infighting among rival groups over the selection of a Pope.. But even so, nobles, emperors and kings interfered in papal elections for centuries.

Some early conclaves were openly raided by those trying to influence the outcome. Some popes were subject to the veto of emperors. The conclave as late as in 1903 was attacked by troops of the Austrian Empire.

This conclave is expected to maintain strict secrecy from the moment the order is given “Extra omnes” (“Everybody out”), except of course for the 117 Cardinals eligible to vote. In the 1922 conclave, a photographer and a journalist are said to have made their way in. In yet another one before, servants were suspected of passing on information on the status of voting.

This time the Sistine Chapel where the conclave will be held, with Michelangelo’s ‘Last Judgment’ adorning the back wall, will be screened for any electronic device for eavesdropping. Voting cardinals will have no means of communication with people outside, such as mobile phones. They cannot watch television or read any publication.

But the Cardinals will not be housed in Spartan cell-like rooms at the Sistine Chapel as they used to be. They will have more comfortable lodging in the nearby Domus Sanctae Marthae. They will also have access to all of the Vatican City.

Once sequestered, the electors will have two rounds of voting in the morning and two in the afternoon. They will write the name of their choice in disguised handwriting that cannot be traced to them.

Three Cardinals will count the ballots. They are scheduled to burn the slips once around noon and once in the afternoon in an urn, with the help of a chemical mixture that emits either black smoke (stalemate) or white smoke (election over) from the chimney of the Chapel.

Last time the smoke appeared grey, and no one could tell what had happened. So this time additionally the church bells will toll when the cardinals have found a new Pope.

Three different sizes of Papal outfit are being prepared so that the new Pontiff can discard his red Cardinal robes and immediately put on the white Papal one to face the Romans. The Pope is the Bishop of Rome and heads the world’s one billion Roman Catholics through that title.

Popes cannot designate a successor. Nor is there any open campaigning. The Roman Catholic Church believes the Holy Spirit guides Cardinal electors.

As cardinals head for Vatican City from far-flung corners of the world, attention is focusing on the composition of this particular Sacred College of Cardinals. The College is more international than ever before; some Vatican observers joked that cardinals will need name tags to recognise one another. Not a single Cardinal is a native of Rome in the election for the Bishop of Rome.

The percentage of Italian cardinals has dwindled from 23.7 in 1978 to 16.9 now. But Europe, with Italian Cardinals counted in, still represents the largest group with 58.

The Cardinals representing a region are disproportionate to the Roman Catholic population. The Latin American bloc has 21 of 117 electors, but the region has half of all Roman Catholics.

The changing composition of the College of Cardinals could play a role in choosing the next Pope, giving more credence to another non-Italian pontiff. Another view is that the papacy may revert to an Italian after the 26-year reign of the first non-Italian pope in 455 years.

*Hilmi Toros, currently reporting from Istanbul, covered the Vatican for a decade during the papacies of Paul VI, and John Paul I and II.

 
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RELIGION: New Pope Will Emerge From a Holy Lock-Up

Hilmi Toros*

ISTANBUL, Apr 8 2005 (IPS) - Whether Latin American, African, Asian or European, the successor to Pope John Paul II will be elected through a uniquely secret gathering of the electoral College of Cardinals. The Pope will be elected at a conclave, which in Latin means locked up ‘with key’.
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