Day I: Black Smoke

from: MSNBC

Papal Coronation Part I: The Entrance, Terce, and Vesting

Given that the Sacred College of Cardinals is to convene next Tuesday to begin the process of electing the new Bishop of Rome, I thought it prudent to start our own series on the traditional rites of Papal Coronation, last used in variation by Paul VI in 1963 and last used in their full integrity by John XXIII in 1958.

The ceremonies are a magnificent display and series of prayers which blend the norms of a Pontifical Mass (Mass celebrated by a bishop) with elements which emphasize and explain the role of the Papacy. Some of these rites are very ancient, as are many of the vestments used, while some are baroque innovations which reflect the political and devotional moods of the Counter-Reformation, a defining era in Catholic history.

Pope Innocent III

The Papal Coronation Office and Mass are votive liturgies, doubles of the first class. This rite may be celebrated on any day outside of the Sundays of Advent, of Lent, the first three days of Pentecost and Easter, Holy Week, Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day. This liturgy may even supersede most holy days. In fact the rubrics demand the Mass and coronation be celebrated on the nearest Sunday or Holy Day. Innocent III was crowned on February 22, the feast of St. Peter's Chair in Antioch, and Paul VI on June 30th, the commemoration of St. Paul. No commemoration is made of the replaced day.

The coronation takes place in St. Peter's basilica. Before the Italian revolution the newly elected Pope would be escorted to the Lateran Cathedral and enthroned immediately, and his coronation would take place at St. Peter's on a different date. This emphasized the two pronged nature of the Petrine ministry: Bishop of Rome and successor of Peter as Prince of the Apostles. If the elected candidate was not yet a bishop, the Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia would consecrate him immediately, in the Sistine Chapel. In some cases though, like Innocent III and many first millennium Popes, the enthronement would take place before the consecration, as bishops would have to be brought to Rome from outside the city. The account of Innocent III's coronation given by Achille Luchaire in Innocent III: Vicar of Christ or Lord of the World? suggests that the consecration occurred at St. Peter's but, in a breach of what we would now consider normal, the Pope said Mass and not the consecrating bishop.

A Greek deacon sings the Gospel at Papal Mass on Mandy
Thursday. Source: newliturgicalmovement.org

The procession into St. Peter's is preceded by the standard servers of Mass, who, when the Pope says Mass, are members of the Papal Household, since abolished by Paul VI. Then follow the Canons of St. Peter's Basilica, then the attending bishops, followed by cardinals in choir dress, then the ministers of the Mass, and finally the Pope, carried on the sedia gestatoria, flanked by two large fans made of ostrich feathers, and surrounded by members of the various Roman honor guards for security. 

John XXIII is carried through St. Peter's Basilica
after Papal Mass

The ministers of Mass are: the Latin and Greek subdeacons, the Latin and Greek deacons—all fully vested according to to their rites, the deacons of honor, the assistant priest, the chaplains, the masters of ceremony, and the celebrant—the Pope. These roles, except for the Greek ministers, would be filled according to one's place in the Roman Curia: remember, this is a Mass said by the Pope and served accordingly by his brethren. The Greek ministers would typically be conscripted from the Byzantine monastery in Rome, which exists to this day.

The Pope, carried on a portal throne called the sedia gestatoria, is vested in alb, amice, stole, cross, cincture, mantum (a very long cope), and mitre. The procession begins in the sacristy, where St. Pius X would have just finished a long drag on his last cigarette, winds down the Scala Regia, and enters the narthex of the Basilica. Here the Pope is set down and the Canons (permanently stationed priests) of St. Peter's Basilica offer obeisance and fidelity to the Pope by kissing his feet.

Blessed Sacrament Chapel of St. Peter's Basilica
source: overheardinthesacristy.net

The procession then enters the Basilica to the blasts of trumpets, a baroque vulgarity if I may say. Although liturgical piety would seem to demand some solemnity, in practice the more recent coronations began and ended with booming applause.

Midway through the Basilica the procession would halt again and the Pope would go to the Blessed Sacrament chapel on the North side for a few minutes of quiet prayer. There are no specific prayers prescribed. This is likely a private practice of the Popes, a moment to ask humbly for Divine guidance, and perhaps some help enduring the long, grueling ceremonies about to ensue.

In the image below you can see just how big and long the mantum, that large cope, actually is. So large that it must be draped over that kneeler, called a faldstool.

Paul VI, wearing the mantum, kneels with Msgr. Enrico Dante during
the Second Vatican Council
source: Washington Times

Traditionally, as this was the first time the Pope appeared to the masses gathered within the Basilica, the choir, more recently called the Sistine Screamers, would sing Tu es Petrus to some polyphonic setting. In the video of John XXIII's coronation the setting was written by Perosi and, as one blogger put it, "massacred" by Msgr. Bartolucci's Sistine Shriekers.

The Pope returns to the sedia gestatoria and is carried, with more vulgar horns set to something masquerading as music, to the altar of St. Gregory the Great in the south transept of the Basilica, to the right of the high altar if one were to look at it oriented.

Altar of St. Gregory the Great, taken by yours' truly

At this altar the Pope once again prays at a faldstool for guidance and then assumes a small throne constructed for Terce and vesting, which at any non-Roman church would have been done in the Lady Chapel. St. Peter's does not have chapels as much as it has an endless maze of altars.

Cardinal Burke in a cappa magna with the Institute of Christ the King

Here the cardinals greet the Pope, kneeling before his throne until the Pope tells them to stands. Eastern Catholic Patriarchs were often allowed to simply genuflect, so as to preserve some level of respect for their offices. The cardinals would be in choir dress, which, before Paul VI's reforms of ecclesiastical dress, meant wearing a long, hooded silk cape called a cappa magna. These were usually twenty feet long. Pius XII shortened them in length by over half and John XXIII promptly undid this policy. The Institute of Christ King seems to prefer for their celebrants' cappae magnae to spread from Tuscany through Sicily.

The chaplain holding the liturgical texts and the candle-bearer approach the Pope who, reading the chants from the book, intones Deus in adiutorium meum intende, the beginning of the third hour of the Divine Office, Terce. The hymn is St. Ambrose's Nunc Sancte nobis Spiritus, of which I have lifted a translation by John henry Cardinal Newman from Wikipedia for your perusal below.

Come, Holy Ghost, Who ever One
Art with the Father and the Son;
Come, Holy Ghost, our souls possess
With Thy full flood of holiness.
In will and deed, by heart and tongue,
With all our powers, Thy praise be sung;
And love light up our mortal frame,
Till others catch the living flame.
Almighty Father, hear our cry
Through Jesus Christ our Lord most high,
Who with the Holy Ghost and Thee
Doth live and reign eternally.

The psalms are festive (excerpts from psalm 118), or, before St. Pius X, normal! The cantors give the dismissal, Benedicamus Domino, as normal, but there is no versicle prayer for the dead, as Mass follows. The Terce from John XXIII's coronation is below. One will note that while Msgr. Bartolucci had laid waste to the instrumental and polyphonic music after just two years as choir director, he had not yet harmed their marvelous singing of plainsong chant.

As always at pontifical Masses, the bishop, or Pope in this case, vests for Mass following the singing of Terce. John XXIII's vesting is not really shown in the video series from which I have taken an extract above. This is likely a courtesy matter. I remember at one of then-Pope Benedict XVI's audiences his assistants would always surround him so as to block him from view whenever he drank water or ate something. I was close enough to see what was happening, though.

The vestments of the Pope are mostly those of a bishop, but with some exceptions and additions. In addition to the alb, that white robe underneath the main vestments, the Pope wears a maddeningly long second alb, or skirt, called a falda,  so as to outdo the cardinals' cappae magnae. The Pope vests with the tunicle and dalmatic, vestments of subdeacon and deacon, then the chasuble, the vestment of the priest. He ties a cincture, a rope, around his waste under the chasuble, to which is attached an odd wad of loose material called a subcinctorum, the significance of which is lost on me even though it dates to the eleventh century or earlier.

Papal vestments of Pius XII. Note the falda rolled into like
a canvas sail, the fanon at the bottom, and the tiara at the top right.
from: Life Magazine

Over his chasuble the Pope puts the fanon, a gold and silver striped shoulder cape which was the forerunner to the amice but, like the maniple, retained use after its practical purpose was adopted by other devices. Originally used to simply cover the neck, the fanon, recently returned to use by Benedict XVI, holds the pallium, in place without damaging the chasuble. While one may say even that practical use is gone, it is a unique vestment to the Papacy and reminds us that the Pope has a unique role in the Church distinct from other bishops. The Pope does not yet assume the pallium, nor does he assume the maniple, that towel-like vestment that goes on the left arm. The Pope's maniple is traditionally embroidered with red and gold threads: red for the blood of the Roman martyrs and gold for the heavenly theology of the Eastern Churches.

The flax torch used during the admonition
to the Pope

The Pope returns to the sedia gestatoria again, imparting his blessing as he passes the congregated faithful, to make the slow move 100 feet northward to the high altar. A lantern burning flax is carried immediately in front of the Pope, symbolizing the evanescence of things in this world. Three times the procession stops and the torchbearer exclaims to the Pope "Pater Sancte, sic transit gloria mundi" ("Holy Father, thus passes the glory of the world"). The last of these addresses would take place before the confessio, the entrance from the ground floor of the Basilica into St. Peter's tomb.

The procession would finally reach the steps leading to the high altar of St. Peter's basilica, where we will leave off for now, as the Mass is about to begin....

Conclave to Begin March 12

From Vaticans News:

2013-03-08 Vatican Radio
(Vatican Radio) The eighth General Congregation of the College of Cardinals meeting in the Vatican Synod Hall Friday has decided that the Conclave for the election of the Pope will begin on Tuesday, 12 March 2013.
A “pro eligendo Romano Pontifice” Mass will be celebrated in St. Peter’s Basilica in the morning. Then Tuesday afternoon the 115 Cardinal Electors will gather in the Pauline Chapel for a moment of collection and prayer and from there they will process in order of precedence through the Sala Regia to the Sistine Chapel invoking the Holy Spirit. Emer McCarthy reports Listen:
There they will take their seats, again observing the order of precedence, to elect the 265th Successor to St Peter. Once they have taken their seats they will hear the second meditation established by the Apostolic Constitution governing the papal transitions. It will be given by the Maltese Augustinian, Cardinal Prospero Grech.

Following the mediation, the 115 cardinals will swear an oath to observe the rules of Conclave which include to maintain fidelity to the election of the Pope, to maintain secrecy, never to support or favor interference. The Cardinal Dean Angelo Sodano, reads aloud the formula of the oath, the Cardinal electors respond: I do so promise, pledge and swear.
After all the Cardinals have taken the oath, the Master of the Papal Ceremonies, Msgr. Guido Marini orders all individuals other than the Cardinal Electors and conclave participants to leave the Sistine Chapel. He stands at the great wooden doors and pronounces the phrase: "Extra omnes!" He then closes the door.

According to the Apostolic Constitution, on the afternoon of the first day, one ballot may be held. If a ballot takes place on the afternoon of the first day and no-one is elected, four ballots are held on each successive day, two in the morning and two in the afternoon. If no result is obtained after three vote days of balloting, the process is suspended for a maximum of one day for prayer, meditation and reflection. A two thirds majority is required for the election of a Pope.

Of the 115 Cardinal Electors, more than half are European with the largest single nationality represented by the 28 Italian Cardinal Electors. In a geographical breakdown: 60 come from Europe, 19 from Latin America, 14 from North America, 11 from Africa, 10 from Asia and 1 from Oceania.

The average age of the Cardinal Electors is 71 while 67 of the Cardinals who will enter in the Conclave Tuesday were appointed by Pope emeritus, Benedict XVI.

There were eight Conclaves in the 20th century, only three of which lasted longer than three days. The longest Conclave in the last two hundred years was 1830-1831. It lasted 50 days for a total of 83 ballots resulting in the election of Gregory XVI, the last religious elected to the papacy. The shortest Conclave in the 20th century took place in 1939. Eugenio Pacelli was elected Pius XII after just three ballots.

Angelic Doctor

from: wikipedia.org

Today is the feast of St. Thomas Aquinas, the Dominican friar who jumped from the window of his family's castle, ran to the nearest priory, and proceeded to write some of the most memorable theological tracts of anyone who has breathed the air of the Christian world.

Aquinas was particularly influential from the era of Trent until Vatican II, a time when theology had to be rational yet accessible to those studying in newly formed schools called seminaries. More recently, the Church seems to have embraced a more Augustinian view (Benedict XVI) or a more Eastern view. Yet the "Angelic Doctor" has enjoyed a consistent following and something of a resurgence of interest in the last decade.

Personally I never enjoyed reading St. Thomas's theology or found it particularly insightful. In many cases I even disagree his his views, specifically on the "form" for the consecration at Mass. Yet I respect him and see, under the brutality of his rationalism and his Aristotelian outlook, a great mystic. One only need read the sequence Lauda Sion or the hymn Pange lingua, which the saint wrote at the request of Pope Urban IV for the newly instituted Feast of Corpus Christi, to understand the profundity of his relationship to God and to His life in the Sacraments. St. Bonaventure, who had also been commissioned by Urban IV to write texts for the new feast, ripped his papers to shreds upon hearing Thomas's hymns.

Aquinas regularly submitted his works to the altar before circulating them abroad, where they would reach audience throughout Europe, including the Papal Court. On one such occasion the figure on the crucifix said, "You've written well of me, Thomas. What would you like?" to which the Saint responded "Only you, Lord."

St. Thomas's vision

Towards the end of Part III of the Summa, his greatest and most enduring effort, Thomas had a vision, and a stroke, during Mass and fell into a short ecstasy. Upon returning to a normal state he forfeited his theological work, deeming that any attempt to explain the great mystery he had seen was a frivolity.

He died en route to the Council of Lyon on this day in 1274. When considering his canonization some in the court of John XXII asked what miracles Aquinas had to his credit. One cardinal devoted to the friar's work suggested that he had as many miracles as there were articles in the Summa.

St. Thomas, pray for us!

Looking For A New Pope?

from: fatherroderick.com

Call Doc Brown!

We Need a Pope Who....

I recently read a series of articles describing Latin Americans' desire to have a Pope who is either one of their own or who "understands" them and the "modern world" better than the "last two papacies." Accusations of Eurocentrism abound in these articles, as do statistics about the growth of Evangelical protestantism in Latin America.

I find this outlook to be very un-supernatural. The cardinals must pick a Pope who "understands" you? I cannot recall a Pope who "understands" what it means to be an American, nor do I want one. I just want whoever God has decided will be Bishop of Rome. The selection of the Pontiff is not a merely human affair, The old saying is that God has chosen the next Pope and the task of the cardinals is to figure out who that person is. We do not pluck Popes from the sea of red hats for only political considerations. When this has been done the results have been mixed at best.

Then there is the second dimension to this issue. Latin America is becoming very commercialized, as access to high speed communications, cheap imported products, and foreign media eases. With this has been a certain liberalization in culture which has disposed some to Liberation Theology, some to protestantism, and some to outright Marxism. Sexual indiscretion is certainly more common in some Latin American countries, thanks to foreign encouragement. One article included a story of a person who claims to be "unchurched" after leaving Catholicism over its sexual morals.

Can anyone really believe for a moment that some hip, modern, iPhone-owning, condom-OKing clerics will really improve the situation? No, of course not. Such a move would make things worse, for giving Latin America such a leader would only force more of the drink down their throats that is causing that part of the world to be religiously tipsy now. A Pope who is fine with condoms is not going to appeal to young people. Such a Pope would, which God will not give us, would only be received by the youth as condoning their own irreligious sexual rootlessness. Would a Pope with a charismatic or Evangelical prayer style bring people back to Mass or would people perceive a leader who, like them, is moving away from formal worship and towards loose and emotion "experiences?"

I have found in my own life that young people, regardless of the country and their ethnicity, are a bit bored by modernity, which to them is no longer exciting, just normal. If they do not practice religion it is more often out of ignorance and the influence of their parents than due animus towards faith. These youths are an opportunity for a teaching moment for the future Pope and his bishops. Perhaps they can teach these young people what Evelyn Waugh called an "ancient, newly learned form of words" known as prayer.

People are after meaning in their lives, and the social upheaval in Latin America suggests that part of the world is no different. Latin America needs a Pope, like the rest of the world, that will teach and re-invigorate the faith of Christ. A religious father who pats us on the back and tells us we are doing a great job is a disaster or any sinner.

Orate Pro Eligendo Papae Novi

1. Come, Holy Ghost, Creator blest,
Vouchsafe within our souls to rest;
Come with Thy grace and heavenly aid
And fill the hearts which Thou hast made.

2. To Thee, the Comforter, we cry,
To Thee, the Gift of God Most High,
The Fount of life, the Fire of love,
The soul's Anointing from above.

3. The sevenfold gifts of grace are Thine,
O Finger of the Hand Divine;
True promise of the Father Thou,
Who dost the tongue with speech endow.

4. Thy light to every thought impart
And shed Thy love in every heart;
The weakness of our mortal state
With deathless might invigorate.

5. Drive far away our wily Foe
And Thine abiding peace bestow;
If Thou be our protecting Guide,
No evil can our steps betide.

6. Make Thou to us the Father known,
Teach us the eternal Son to won
And Thee, whose name we ever bless,
Of both the Spirit, to confess.

7. Praise we the Father and the Son
And Holy Spirit, with them One;
And may the Son on us bestow
The gifts that from the Spirit flow!