In God's Name (14 page)

Within months of making that statement Pope Adrian was dead. Evidence suggests that he was poisoned by his doctor.

Now with Paul VI buried, the Roman Curia minority were yet again attempting to prevail over the majority. In one of the early General Congregation meetings with only 32 cardinals present, most of them Italian, it had been agreed that the 111 cardinals would not go into Conclave until August 25th and that voting would not start until August 26th. The delay of twenty days was just one day short of the longest permissible period laid down by the rules of the late Pope. It was also the longest in modern history. In 1878, sans TWA and Pan Am, the cardinals had waited a mere ten days before going into the Conclave that elected Leo XIII. The three-week period gave the Italian cardinals the maximum time to persuade the ‘foreigners’ of the wisdom of electing an Italian successor to Paul VI. They met unexpected opposition. Albino Luciani was not alone in thinking the time had come for a Pope from the Third World. Many from the Third World felt the same.

The majority of the cardinals from Latin America attended a secret meeting at the Brazilian College in Rome on August 20th. No major candidate emerged but it was agreed that the need was for a pastoral Pope, for a man who clearly manifested holiness, who recognized the needs of the poor, a man in favour of power sharing, of collegiality, a man who by his very nature and qualities would have world-wide appeal. The group was primarily concerned with what the new Pope
should represent rather than who the new Holy Father was, though the qualifications they specified reduced the field of possible winners dramatically.

In Florence,
*
Giovanni Benelli, wrongly thought by many observers to be running for the Papacy, received the Latin American specification. He smiled as he considered the qualities the Latin Americans were seeking. It read like an accurate biography of exactly the man Benelli considered should be Pope. Picking up the telephone, he dialled a number outside Florence, and moments later was engaged in animated conversation with the Belgian Cardinal, Suenens.

In Rome Pignedoli continued to give lavish dinner parties, Curial cardinals continued to lobby discreetly on behalf of Siri and the Vatican Press Office maintained its policy of giving the world’s commentators the minimum of co-operation, as the date of what Peter Nichols of
The Times
called ‘The World’s Most Secret Ballot’ drew nearer.

The Latin American cardinals were not the only group to formulate a document that amounted to a job description. A week earlier, a group of Catholics calling themselves CREP (Committee for the Responsible Election of the Pope) held a Press conference in the Columbus Hotel, Rome. The brave man chosen to field questions from over 400 reporters was Father Andrew Greeley. Not himself a member of CREP, Greeley and a group of theologians had drawn up the job description on behalf of the Committee.

There were to be many critics of the document. Much of the criticism was banal, much was dismissive. Undoubtedly the signatories appeared to be looking for an extraordinary man. It is equally without doubt that the document showed a deep love for the Roman Catholic Church. These men cared desperately about the nature and quality of the new Papacy. To dismiss men of the quality of Hans Kung, Yves Congar and Edward Schillebeeck requires a mentality bordering on spiritual sterility. Professor Kung, for example, is in the view of many who are qualified to judge, the most brilliant Catholic theologian alive today. All the signatories of the press release have impressive records.

HELP WANTED

A hopeful, holy man who can smile.

Interesting work, guaranteed income, residence comes with position. Protection by proven security organization. Apply College of Cardinals, Vatican City.

Thus began the job description. It went on to describe the man they would like chosen by the secret Conclave. It did not matter, they stated, if he was Curial or non-Curial; Italian or non-Italian; whether he was of the First, Second or Third World. It did not matter if he was an intellectual or non-intellectual, whether he was a diplomat or pastor, progressive or moderate, an efficient administrator or lacking in administrative experience . . . What was needed, the theologians said, at this present critical time in history was ‘a man of holiness, a man of hope, a man of joy. A holy man who can smile. A Pope not for all Catholics but for all peoples. A man totally free from the slightest taint of financial organizational wheeling and dealing.’ It went on to list other vital essentials. Reading the qualifications needed and comparing it with the list of leading candidates, the overriding impression is one of deep, urgent need bordering on desperation.

Greeley was given a rough ride which got rougher when he had the temerity to suggest that perhaps a Pope of the female gender might not be a bad idea. To suggest this in a room largely full of macho Italian male reporters, showed enormous courage. Eventually the meeting ended in some disorder with a young Italian woman screaming at Father Greeley that he was evil and had sexual problems.

A few days later Professor Hans Kung indicated in an interview with the Italian news magazine
Panorama
that in his view the entire Roman Catholic Church had and would continue to have sexual problems until something was done about
Humanae Vitae.
He put birth control at the head of the problems facing the new Pope. ‘It is a fundamental question for Europe and the United States but above all, for the Third World . . . A revision of
Humanae Vitae
is necessary. Many theologians and also bishops would have no difficulty in consenting to birth control, even by artifical means, if the idea could be accepted that rules established in the past by Popes could be corrected.’

On August 21st, Cardinal Lorscheider of Brazil made public through an interview exactly what was on the Latin American ‘wanted’ list. They sought a Pope who was a man of hope with a positive attitude towards the world. They wanted a man who would
not seek to impose Christian solutions on non-Christians; who was sensitive to social problems and open to dialogue, with a commitment to the search for unity; a good pastor, a good shepherd in the way that Jesus was; a man who sincerely believed that the Bishops’ Conference should be an influencing factor on the Papacy rather than a mere charade. He must be open to finding a new solution to birth control, which, while it would not contradict
Humanae Vitae,
would go beyond it.

Cardinals Benelli and Suenens, still avoiding the heat of Rome, were quietly building the candidature of a man who measured up to the desires of the Latin American cardinals, Father Greeley, and Professor Kung: Albino Luciani.

When Luciani’s name surfaced in the Italian Press during the pre-Conclave period his candidature was dismissed as a gambit. One Italian Vatican expert, Sandro Magister, referred to ‘the uncolourful Patriarch of Venice’. Another, who should have known better, was Giancarlo Zizola. A few days before the Conclave, Zizola – who had interviewed Albino Luciani in depth nine years earlier – wrote a dismissive little biography entitled ‘With the poor (not on the left)’. Zizola quoted an un-named source who had observed, ‘The least you can say is that he is now the recognized leader of the ecclesiastical right, a Venetian replica of Cardinal Ottaviani.’

Luciani, when questioned by the Press about the spasmodic emergence of his name among the contenders, dismissed the suggestion with a laugh. ‘I am at best on the C List for Pope.’ Content, the news media left him alone. His name was quickly forgotten.

Remaining aloof from the wheeling and dealing, Luciani walked in the gardens of the Augustinian residence which overlook St Peter’s, where he engaged Brother Clemente in conversation. Clemente was perspiring as he laboured among the flower beds. Luciani recalled that when he was a boy he had worked in the fields. ‘Then I had callouses on my hands. Now I have callouses in my brain.’

As the day of the Conclave drew nearer Albino Luciani had other concerns. The five-year-old Lancia 2000 had developed engine trouble. He told his secretary, Father Lorenzi, that he must get it repaired quickly. The voting in the Conclave was due to start on Saturday, August 26th. Luciani insisted that the car must be ready for their return journey to Venice on Tuesday 29th. He wanted to make an early start. There was much to do upon their return home.

On August 25th Luciani wrote to his niece, Pia:

Dear Pia,

I am writing to let you have the new stamps of the Sede Vacante and also to congratulate you for your first exam which went well. Let us hope the Lord will help you also for the rest. Today we finished the pre-Conclave with the last General Congregation. After which, having drawn lots for a cell, we went to see them. I’ve got number 60, a drawing room converted into a bedroom; it is like being in the seminary in Feltre in 1923. An iron bed, a mattress, a basin to wash in.

In 61 is Cardinal Tomasek of Prague. Further on, Cardinals Tarancon, Madrid; Medeiros, Boston; Sin, Manila; Malual, Kinshasa. The only one missing is Australia and we would have a concentration from the whole world. I don’t know how long the Conclave will last, it is difficult to find the right person to confront so many problems which are very heavy crosses. Fortunately I am out of danger. It is already a very heavy responsibility to cast one’s vote in these circumstances. I am sure that as a good Christian you will pray for the Church in these moments. Say ‘hello’ to Francesco, Father and Mother. I am not writing to these last two as I am rather busy at the moment.

Your very affectionate

Albino Luciani

The following day a few hours before the Conclave he wrote to his sister, Antonia:

Dear Sister,

I am writing to you shortly before going into the Conclave. These are heavy moments of responsibility, even if there is no danger for me, despite the gossip in the papers. Casting one’s vote for a Pope in these moments is a heavy weight. Pray for the Church, and an affectionate greeting also to Errere, Roberto and Gino. Albino Luciani

Handing his letter to the Augustinians to be posted, he advised them that he had left most of his belongings in his room. That morning he had celebrated a Mass ‘for the Election of a Pope’ with his brother cardinals. Clemente had already taken an overnight bag for Luciani to the Sistine Chapel. Now the cardinal joined his colleagues in the Pauline Chapel with its frescoes by Michelangelo. Fussed over by Monsignor Virgilio Noe, the Papal Master of Ceremonies, and
preceded by the Sistine Chapel Choir singing the hymn to the Holy Spirit, they walked through the Sala Ducale, beneath Bernini’s cherubs and into the Sistine Chapel.

When Monsignor Noe called ‘Extra omnes’ (‘All out’), the choir, altar servers, television crews and all extraneous personnel departed. With Cardinal Villot standing just inside and Noe just outside, the door slowly closed on the 111 cardinals. It would not open until a Pope had been elected. The world’s most secret ballot would continue until puffs of white smoke told the waiting crowds in St Peter’s Square and the many millions of world-wide observers that the Vatican throne had been filled.

*
Giovanni Benelli had been manoeuvred out of Rome in 1977. His continuing efforts to have Marcinkus removed from the Vatican Bank had resulted in a cabal, which included in its members Mancinkus and Paul’s secretary Monsignor Macchi, having Benelli removed from the Secretariat of State’s office. He had been made a cardinal and been given Florence by way of compensation.

Inside the Conclave

Whatever Pope Paul’s failings might have been, he certainly knew how to organize a secret Conclave. He had left very clear instructions about the proceedings to elect his successor.

One of Paul’s preoccupations had been secrecy. Two days before the Conclave, the cardinals were obliged to swear a solemn oath. Under pain of excommunication they were forbidden subsequently to discuss the balloting ‘either by signs, word or writing, or in any other manner’. To drive home the point, the cardinals also had to promise and swear ‘not to use devices designed in any way for taking pictures’. Obviously Pope Paul did not entirely trust these princes of the Roman Catholic Church.

In case any of the cardinals might have suffered a memory lapse between taking the Oath of Secrecy and entering the Conclave, they were obliged to take it again when those extraneous to the proceedings had left the Sistine Chapel.