THE POPE AS ELECTED LEADER

 

 

"When the selection of the highest priest is being taken care of, let him to be prefered above all whom the clerics and the people have agreed to ask for". Pope Leo I

 III. The Present Legislation

The apostolic constitution Romano pontifici eligendo of Paul VI now contains the law on papal elections. But There is also a body of unwritten customs and rituals, some of which are still used.

Who is eligible for election to the papacy?

In theory, any baptized, male Catholic who is capable of accepting the election and of exercising authority may be elected. There is no provision in the laws governing the candidate’s age, nationality, or status in the Church. In practice, however, most of the Popes in the last several hundred years have been Italian cardinals over fifty years of age. With exception of John Paul II, the last non-Italian Pope was the Dutchman Adrian VI (1522-23); the last non-cardinal to be elected was Urban VI (1378-89), who was archbishop of Bari; and the last Pope who was a member of a religious congrataion was the Camaldose monk Gregory XVI (1831-46)

Who elects the Pope?

Since 1179, the college of Cardinals has exclusively as papal electors. No eligible cardinal can be excluded from the election, even if he is under the penalty of excommunication, suspension, or interdict. These censures are temporarily suspended during the election. But a cardinal who has resigned or who has been canonically deposed cannot participate. Today Canonists agree that the right of the cardinal to elect the Pope is based only on ecclesiastical law.

In recent years, some modifications have been made relative to the cardinal electors. The Code of Canon Law (Canon 232, 1) declared that cardinals must be at least priests, the last non-priest cardinal was Giacomo Antonelli (d.1876), Secretary of State under Pius IX. In 1962, John XXII ordered that all cardinals in the future would also be bishops, (Cum gravissimas, AAS, 54 (1962), 256-58). Paul VI, in 1970, barred all cardinals over eighty years of age from participating in papal elections. (Ingravescentem aetatem, AAS, 62 (1970), 810-12). Both John and Paul greatly enlarged and internationalized the College of Cardinals, whose number had been fixed at seventy by Sixtus V in 1586. At the death of Pius XII there were 57 cardinals; at the death of John XXIII there are more than 50 nations represented in the college, with about one third from the Third World. At the conclaves of 1978, for the first time in history, a majority of the 111 electors were non-Europeans. The maximum number of cardinal electors was set at 120 by Paul VI (Romano pontifici eligendo, No. 33, 662).

The present legislation forbids, under pain of excommunication, any elector to accept “under whatsoever pretext, from whatsoever civil authority, the task of proposing the veto or exclusiva (ibid., no. 81, 641). This is a reference to a practice that existed since the sixteenth century whereby several of the powerful Catholic nations of Europe- Australia, France, and Spain attempted to use the veto to exclude a particular candidate they did not favour. The last instanc of this usage was in the conclave following the death of Leo XIII in 1903. The Austrialian Emperor through Cardinal Puzyna, vetoed the candidacy of Cardinal Rampolla del Tindazo, Pius X was elected at that conclave and, early in the pontificate, he condemned this practice. (Commissum nobis (Jan.20, 1904).

What is a conclave?

The conclave is both the assembly of the cardinal electors and a place where it meets, Paul VI gave the following description:

By conclave is understood those clearly defined places, having as it were the character of a sacred retreat, where, after the invocation of the Holy Spirit, the cardinal electors choose the Supreme Pontiff, and where they and the other officials and assistants, together with any conclavist there may be, remain day and night until the election has taken place, without having any dealings with extraneous persons or things. (Romano pontifici eligendo, No. 42, 624).

The conclave must begin at least fifteen days after the Pope’s death but not more than twenty. During this period before, the conclave, the cardinals meet formally to discuss the law governing the election, the state of the Church, and the kind of Pope who is needed. They do not propose the names at this time but try to arrive at a consensus on the qualifications required in the next Pope. The long preconclave period is designed to shorten the time of the actual conclave. Electioneering and the formation of any pacts, agreements or arrangements between the cardinals is strictly forbidden. Unlike the elections in the secular world, there are no declared candidates, no official parties, and no public campaigning. Some informal lobbying does occur, perhaps based on Paul VI’s statement that “we do not, however, have the intention of forbidding the exchange of views concerning the election during the period in which the See is vacant. (A. Greeley, The Making of the Popes (Cleveland: W. Collins, 1979).

The cardinal electors live in a small, specially built rooms in the Vatican and cannot leave until a Pope is elected. The quarters are simple and ar there is no communication with the outside through letters, newspapers, telephone, television or radio. Some find the confinement trying., Especially in the swelting Roman summer. Cardinal Siri of Genoa, for example, claimed in a moment of poetic exaggeration that “in a certain sense it is like a living hell” of recent years, however, the conclaves have not been exclusively long. In this century, conclaves have averaged three days.

Secrecy governs every aspect of the conclave. The cardinals and other officials take solemn oath promising, under pain of excommunication, not to reveal anything that takes place in the conclave. The number of possible excommunications that threaten the cardinals at every turn has led Peter Hebbletwaite to refer to the conclave as “a dangerous occasion of sin.” All the votes and private notes of the cardinals are burned. At the end of the conclave a document is prepared that gives the results of each balloting session. It is taken in a sealed envelope in the Vatican archives and cannot be opened without the explicit permission of the Pope. No reading, reproducing, or transmitting device is allowed within the precincts of the conclave. To see that this probation is observed, officials make regular searches of the area.

How is the election conducted?

The present norms describe in detail the three traditional types of election, which are also to be followed if a Pope resigns. The first, election by acclamation or inspiration, occurs “when the cardinal electors, as it were through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, freely and spontaneously, unanimously and loud, proclaim on individual as Supreme Pontiff”.(ibid., No. 36, 632). There has to be completely unanimity, and each cardinal has to indicate his assent either orally or by writing.

Election by delegation, the second type, must be agreed upon by every one of the cardinals. They then elect an even number of delegates from nine to fifteen and specify the procedure the delegates must follow. This would involve for example, deciding whether the delegation should simply propose a name to the rest of the cardinals or directly carry out the election.

Election by Scrutiny, the third type, is the usual method and consists of written ballots. The candidate who receives two thirds plus one is considered elected. Four ballots are held each day: Two in the morning and two in the afternoon. If after three days that is, after twelve ballots, no one has been elected, then balloting is suspended for a time, with a maximum of one day for prayer and discussion. Then seven more ballots can be taken and, after another pause, seven more.  Then, if still no election has taken place, the electors must choose one of the following options:

a)      To continue voting in order to arrive at the necessary two thirds-plus one majority; or by voting for one of the two candidates who gained the greatest number of votes in the preceding ballot.

To the faithful waiting in St. Peter’s square, black smoke coming from the chimney in the Sistine Chapel is a sign that the balloting must continue, white smoke, that a Pope has been elected and that they will soon hear the words: Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum. Habemus Papam! The Pope gives his blessing urbi et orbi and receives the applause of the multitude, the last vestige of popular participation in papal elections.

At the end of the conclave, the newly elected Pope is asked: “Do you accept your canonical election as Supreme Pontiff?” If he accepts, he is then asked: “By what name do you wish to be called?” The tradition that the Pope take a new name is an interesting aspect of the papal history, a long- standing practice but not an ancient one. For centuries the Popes kept their own names, but this precedent was broken in the sixteen century when a man named Mercury was elected Pope. He decided that it would be more fitting to have a Christian name than the name of a pagan god so he took the name John II (533-35). The next pope to change his name was Octavian, who took the name John XII (955-64). By the eleventh century, this practice became quite common. 

In 1009, for example, a candidate who was known as Peter Pig’s Mouth (to distinguish him from his father, Peter the Shoemaker) was elected and understandably took a new name, Serguis IV (1009-12). When Pietro Barbo was elected, he wished to take the name (which means handsome) might be taken to be an unseemly reference to his good looks. He then selected the name Mark, but since this was the rallying cry of the Venetian troops, it too was rejected. He settled on the name Paul II (1464-71). The most popular papal names have been John, Pius, Benedict, Clement, Leo, Gregory and Innocent. There has never been Peter II, John Paul 1 was the first Pope ever to choose a double name and the first Pope since Lando (913-14) to have an original name.

In conclusion, papal elections are unpredictable events, as the 1978 conclaves proved dramatically. Despite countless forecasts and lengthy assessments of front-running papabili, the results showed once again the wisdom of the Roman proverb “He who enters the conclave a Pope, leaves it a cardinal.” The activity of the Holy Spirit, that silent member of the conclave, continues to surprise us. Paul VI warned the electors not to decide on the basis of friendship or aversion and not to be influenced by pressure groups, suggestions from the media, or the desire for popularity. The criterion he gives is pragmatic but deeply spiritual:

But having before their eyes solely the glory of God and the good of the Church and after imploring God’s help, they shall give their vote to the person whom they judge to be more suited than the others to govern the universal Church fruitfully and usefully. (ibid., no. 36, 632).