Papal conclave: Second day of voting is make-or-break day for cardinals
After the first burst of black smoke, the wheeling, dealing and praying really begins for the cardinals who will choose the next pope.
LUCAS OLENIUK / TORONTO STAR
The faithful travelled to St. Peter's Square ahead of the pre-Conclave mass at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican on Tuesday. Voting for the next pope continues Wednesday.
By: Sandro Contenta News, Published on Tue Mar 12 2013
ROME—After the first burst of black smoke, the wheeling, dealing and praying really begin.
Wednesday, the second day of voting, Cardinals get a chance to vote up to four times to elect the next Roman Catholic pope .. http://www.thestar.com/news/world/pope.html . It’s the day the momentum of candidates will be made or broken.
In 2005, it was on the second day that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger turned his first-ballot votes into a winning majority, becoming Pope Benedict XVI. Leading contenders this time will be praying for a replay.
The first ballot on Tuesday produced the expected black smoke, the signal that none of the candidates had reached the 77 votes needed to win.
Ahead of Ouellet, if reports are accurate, are Italy’s Angelo Scola, a protégé of the now-retired Benedict’s, and Brazil’s Odilo Scherer, who is backed by top prelates in the Vatican bureaucracy.
Ouellet, 68, is a staunch conservative and another Benedict favourite. His chances seem to depend on cardinals looking for an alternative if Scola or Scherer can’t break clear.
“In the history of conclaves, the first vote is very important because that’s when the promises end and you start seeing the real numbers,” says Alberto Melloni, a professor of Vatican history at the University of Modena.
There’s lots of talk of a quick election, but Melloni isn’t so sure. If no one was clearly ahead of the pack after the first ballot, the cardinals might look around the Sistine Chapel and “start from scratch.”
“There will be some (cardinals) who think, ‘We’ve already had one troublesome brother, perhaps that’s enough,’ ” Melloni said in an interview.
There has been much talk from cardinals about the need for a pontiff who grabs control of the Vatican bureaucracy, known as the Curia. It is widely seen as unruly and dismissive of advice from Catholic dioceses around the world. Cardinal Tom Collins, Archbishop of Toronto, has made clear that cardinals would like to meet in Rome more frequently, partly to hold the Curia accountable.
Daniele Menozzi, a university professor of Christian history, is suspicious of Curia reform talk coming from the camps of some papal candidates.
“They want to spread the idea that reform of the Curia is equal to reform of the church,” says Menozzi, with the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa. “There are candidates who can reform the Curia, but given their past and ideology, they will never reform the church.”
In Europe and the U.S., a growing number of rebel priests are demanding a more decentralized and democratic church. A church more in tune with its community, they say, might eventually lead to reversals of the ban on priests marrying or women being ordained, and ease rigid doctrines on a range of sex-related issues.
The black smoke signalling the first sign of deadlock emerged from a Vatican chimney at 7:41 p.m. Tuesday. The initial burst of grey, as usual, got many in St. Peter’s Square excited, wondering for a moment if it would turn white — the colour that heralds a new pope. The square quickly emptied after the grey turned to black.
Another great moment in mass communication had come to pass.
“It was expected by emotional nonetheless,” said Valeria Mattaloni, 33, one of the thousands that had gathered. “We’re waiting for a new spiritual guide.”
Mattaloni, a researcher of medieval papal texts, said she hopes for a pope who brings “a new direction for the church, or at the very least some renewal.”
The cardinals filed into the Sistine Chapel at 4:30 p.m., chanting the Litany of the Saints. The “princes” of the church took their places at two rows of tables lined up along each side of the chapel. In front of each was a green, bound copy of the “Apostolic Constitution,” which outlines the election rules.
Then they filed one at a time to swear on the Gospel that if elected by “divine disposition” they would do the job faithfully. They also swore to never disclose what happens during the election.
The constitution, passed by the late John Paul II, states that the ballot paper must be rectangular. Cardinals will write the name of their candidate “as far as possible in handwriting that cannot be identified as his.”
The rules also take into account the possibility of cheating.
“If during the opening of the ballots the Scrutineers should discover two ballots folding in such a way that they appear to have been completed by one elector, if these ballots bear the same name they are counted as one vote.”
After being read, each ballot is pierced with the same needle and thread until they are all securely tied in a knot. During full days of voting, the ballots are burned after every other vote when a pope is not elected. If there is a new pope, the smoke signal will be white.
The cardinals began the morning with a conclave mass led by Cardinal Angelo Sodano, dean of the College of Cardinals.
In his sermon, Sodano issued what can be described as a job description for the next pope — one who fights injustice and unites a divided church. The frail need not apply, Sodano seemed to make clear, because the job requires “tireless” work.
Facing a sea of cardinals in red, Sodano began his sermon by thanking Pope Benedict XVI — the first pontiff to retire in 600 years — for his “brilliant pontificate.”
Sodano did not tip his hand to one candidate or another. His sermon dealt with general Catholic principals that all candidates would embrace. He described a pope that must be “in contact with suffering, injustice, poverty and all human frailty, both physical and moral.”
The emphasis on fighting poverty and injustice will be applauded by many reform-minded priests in the church. They see an emphasis on social justice as the best chance of making the church relevant in western countries where pews are largely empty.
Social justice has long been a core church value. But reformers say it has been sidetracked by internal Vatican power struggles and an obsession with centralizing decision-making in Rome.
Former Pope Benedict is set to settle into his new, Vatican convent home, more than two months after retiring. CBS News' Allen Pizzey reports.
By Tom Kington May 2, 2013, 8:56 a.m.
ROME -- The Vatican became the home of two living popes Thursday when former pontiff Benedict XVI took up residence in a house in the city-state’s garden.
After becoming the first pope in six centuries to step down, Benedict left the Vatican that day by helicopter to avoid intruding on the election of his successor and to give time for his new house to be renovated. On Thursday, Pope Francis was waiting to greet Benedict at the newly decorated home, a former monastery that the former pope will occupy along with four lay nuns who will cook and clean for him and his private secretary, Archbishop Georg Ganswein.
Francis and Benedict briefly prayed together in the house's private chapel, the Vatican said in a statement.
Concerns have been raised that Francis’ authority might be undermined by the presence at the Vatican of his 86-year-old predecessor. Benedict has chosen to continue to dress in a white cassock and surprised many by opting to call himself "pope emeritus."
But when he stepped down, he insisted he would remain “hidden from the world” in retirement. He appeared extremely frail when Francis visited him at Castel Gandolfo in March, although the Vatican has said he is not suffering from any illnesses -- just slowing down with old age.
Francis' decision to personally welcome Benedict home after a 15-minute flight gave the impression of a host welcoming a guest.
Workers have readied a study and library for Benedict at his new digs, which were formerly occupied by cloistered nuns as well as by the Vatican’s head gardener. A guest room is available for Benedict’s brother, Father Georg Ratzinger, who lives in Germany.
Sitting on a rise in the Vatican’s large garden, the house is close to a wooded area, commands views over Rome and is less than half a mile from Casa Santa Marta, the Vatican guesthouse where Francis has chosen to live since his election March 13.
Francis has eschewed the large papal apartment usually occupied by popes in favor of the bustle and constant company at Casa Santa Marta, which sits next to the Vatican’s gas station and is a short walk from the Holy See’s on-site department store.
The 76-year-old Argentine has shown a dislike for the regal trappings of the papacy. He takes meals alongside other visitors to the residence and gives Mass every morning in the residence’s chapel to Vatican employees.
Francis has already gained popularity with his informal style and appointed a commission of cardinals to study and probably overhaul the Vatican administration, which critics say has become dysfunctional and corrupt.
A papal resignation (Latin: renuntiatio) occurs when the reigning pope of the Roman Catholic Church voluntarily steps down from his position. As the reign of the pope has conventionally been from election until death, papal resignation is an uncommon event. Before the 21st-century, only five popes unambiguously resigned with historical certainty, all between the 10th and 15th centuries. Additionally, disputed claims of four popes having resigned date between the 3rd and 11th centuries; a fifth disputed case may have involved an antipope.
Additionally, a few popes during the saeculum obscurum were "deposed," meaning driven from office by force. The history and canonical question here is complicated; generally, the official Vatican list of Popes seems to recognize such "depositions" as valid resignations if the Pope acquiesced, but not if he did not. The later development of canon law has been in favor of papal supremacy, leaving no recourse to remove a pope involuntarily.
The most recent pope to resign was Benedict XVI, who vacated the Holy See on 28 February 2013 at 19:00 UTC. He was the first pope to do so since since Gregory XII in 1415.
Despite its common usage in discussion of papal resignations, the term "abdication" is not used in the official documents of the Church for resignation by a pope.
Pope Benedict XVI leaves Christmas Eve Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican Dec. 24.
Alessandro Speciale | Aug 26, 2013
VATICAN CITY (RNS) The personal secretary of former Pope Benedict XVI denied that the pontiff resigned as a consequence of a “mystical experience” in which God “told me” to step back from the papacy.
The Catholic news agency Zenit published a story on Aug. 19 reportedly based on the account of one of the former pope’s few visitors; Benedict is living in a refurbished monastery on the Vatican grounds.
That experience sparked an “absolute desire” to dedicate his life exclusively to prayer, in a solitary relationship with God, Benedict reportedly said.
Zenit’s account received wide attention but was met with skepticism by people familiar with the former pope.
While continuing to serve as Benedict’s secretary in his retirement, Gaenswein also works with Pope Francis as Prefect of the Papal Household, charged with overseeing the staff who directly work with the new pope.
In the Canale 5 interview, Gaenswein described his role as that of a “bridge between the pope emeritus and the reigning pope.” He also assured that the two men have an “excellent” relationship.
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