In God's Name (15 page)

To make triply sure, after the cardinals had gone to their assigned rooms, or ‘cells’ as Paul preferred to call them, Cardinal Villot, helped by a number of colleagues and two technicians, made a search of the entire Conclave area looking for anyone who had hidden himself hoping for the scoop of a lifetime. Then in a manner reminiscent of Stalag Five or Colditz, all the various personnel were physically checked and a roll call of them taken in the Chapel.

To ensure that nobody without was trying to get within, Paul had also instructed that a large retinue of Vatican personnel, including the Swiss Guard and Vatican architects, were to make a careful check outside the Sistine Chapel. Whether Paul was fearful that the banned
octogenarians might attempt to climb the outer wall is not stated within the rules!

Villot and his assistants plus the two technicians certainly earned their lire during the Conclave. Yet another of their tasks was to make random searches of the entire Conclave area, looking for tape recorders, video equipment and all forms of bugging device.

With all this searching, body counting and double checking, the late Pope clearly appreciated that there would be very little time on the first day to get down to the actual task of voting for a Pope.

While Rome basked in a heatwave, the temperature within the Sistine Chapel must have been close to unbearable for those mainly elderly men. The late Pope had not forgotten the windows. Under his instructions all of them had been sealed and boarded up. In this environment 111 cardinals would on the morrow make the most important decision of their lives.

If outside the walls the hopes, needs and desires of millions concerning the new Papacy were myriad, then they accurately mirrored the cross-section of views contained within the Conclave. The right wing was reflected in the aspirations of those who desired a return to the pre-Vatican Council II world, where ecclesiastical discipline of a rigid nature was the keystone. The left wing sought a Pope who understood and related the Church to the poor, a Pope who would rule in a democratic manner and acknowledge that his bishops should influence the direction in which the Church moved. They yearned for a John XXIII, while the right wing longed for a Pius XII. In the middle were men grappling with both points of view, attempting to go backwards and forwards simultaneously. There was also Albino Luciani, a man with a simplicity that is rarely given to a person of such high intelligence; a simplicity that sprang from a sophisticated and complex mind. He saw his task as the need to acknowledge the unfulfilled aspirations of the Third World. Hence his decision to vote for the Archbishop of Fortaleza, Brazil, Aloisio Lorscheider, a man with glittering intellectual gifts who knew all about the problems of the poor. To elect such a man as Pope would be an inspired choice with or without the aid of the Holy Spirit.

Giovanni Benelli and Leon Joseph Suenens had an equally inspired choice. Before the Conclave Benelli had watched with wry amusement when media speculation identified him as a possible Pope. He had remained silent when subjected to snide attacks by Curial cardinals such as Pericle Felici, the Administrator of the Patrimony for the Holy See, who had said of him, ‘His vote will go only to himself.’

Felici was soon to discover that Benelli had different plans for his vote and, more important, for the votes of others. When news of some of the quiet, discreet lobbying being done by Benelli and Suenens reached the Curia, they were as dismissive of Albino Luciani as were the men and women of the media. Of the many pre-Conclave biographies issued by the Vatican, that on Luciani was the shortest. Clearly those in power agreed with his own assessment, that he was no more than a C List candidate. Like the world’s Press, the Curia did not know the man. Unfortunately for the Curia the other cardinals did. After the election many of the world’s Press and the Vatican experts would excuse their inability to pick the winner by stating that he was ‘unknown, has not travelled outside Italy, does not speak any languages’.

Albino Luciani was fluent in German, French, Portuguese and English, as well as his native Italian and Latin. Apart from being well known by the non-Curial Italian cardinals he had a wide range of friendships. The Poles, Wojtyla and Wyszynski, had stayed with him in Venice. Wojtyla had shaped Luciani’s thinking with regard to the problem of Marxism. He had stayed with Lorscheider during a trip to Brazil in 1975. Cardinal Arns, also from Brazil, was another close friend. Suenens of Belgium, Willebrands of Holland, Marty of France, Cooke of New York, Hoeffner and Volk of Germany, Manning of Los Angeles, Medeiros of Boston, were just a few of the cardinals who enjoyed friendships with Luciani. In addition to Brazil he had also been to Portugal, Germany, France, Yugoslavia, Switzerland and Austria, as well as Africa where he had created the link between Vittorio Veneto and Kiremba, a town in Burundi.

He had formed friendships with many non-Catholics. The black Phillip Potter, Secretary of the World Council of Churches, had been his house guest. Others included Jews, Anglicans, and Pentecostal Christians. He had exchanged books and letters with Hans Kung. If the Roman Curia had known that, alarm bells would have rung all over Vatican City.

This then was the man who now merely wished to cast his vote, see a new Pope elected, climb into his repaired Lancia and go home to Venice. He had already considered the possibility that by some absurd twist of fate his name might emerge from the pack. When Mario Senigaglia had wished him luck and urged him to take some of his speeches ‘just in case’, Luciani had dismissed the suggestion. ‘There is always a way out of it. You can always refuse.’

In Rome Diego Lorenzi, Luciani’s secretary since 1976, had also expressed the wish that this man, whom like Senigaglia before him – he regarded as a father, should be the next Pope. Again Luciani dismissed the suggestion. He reminded Lorenzi of the rules which the late Pope had drawn up. He referred to that supreme moment which occurs when one of the cardinals has received two thirds plus one of the votes, in this case 75. The cardinal in question is then approached and asked, ‘Do you accept?’ Luciani smiled at his secretary. ‘And if they elect me I will say, “I’m sorry. I refuse”.’

On Saturday morning, August 26th, after they had celebrated Mass and breakfasted, the cardinals walked to their allotted chairs in the Sistine Chapel. The rules urged that each cardinal disguise his handwriting on the voting card which was so designed that when folded in two it was reduced in size to about one inch. After scrutineers were appointed to check the votes, three more cardinals were appointed to scrutinize the scrutineers. The two-thirds plus one was Pope Paul’s safeguard against a cardinal voting for himself.

Eventually, with the temperature as well as the tension mounting, the first ballot began.
*

After the ballot cards had been counted, checked, checked again and then checked for a third time to ensure that no cardinal had voted twice, the cards were then carefully threaded together, recounted, rechecked and placed in a designated box for subsequent burning. The voting on the first ballot produced the following result:

Siri 25 votes

Luciani 23 votes

Pignedoli 18 votes

Lorscheider 12 votes

Baggio 9 votes

The remaining 24 were scattered. The Italians, Bertoli and Felici, the Argentinian, Pironio and the Polish cardinal, Karol Wojtyla received votes, as did Cardinals Cordeiro of Pakistan and Franz Koenig of Austria.

Albino Luciani had listened with growing incredulity as the scrutineer called out his name twenty-three times. When a number of the cardinals sitting nearby had turned and smiled at him he merely shook his head, bemused. How could it be that he had obtained so many votes?

Cardinals Benelli, Suenens and Marty could have supplied the answer. They had created what they considered to be a successful base from which to promote Luciani. Apart from these three, also voting for Luciani on the first ballot was an international cross-section of cardinals. From France, Renard and Gouyon; from Holland, Willebrands and Alfrink; Koenig of Austria; Volk and Hoeffner of Germany; Malula of Zaire; Nsubuga of Uganda; Thiandoum of Dakar; Gantin from Benin; Colombo of Milan; Pelligrino of Turin; Ursi of Naples; Poma of Bologna; Cooke of New York; Lorscheider of Brazil; Ekandem of Nigeria; Wojtyla of Cracow; Sin of Manila.

Unaware of the identities of his supporters, Luciani concluded that this aberration would correct itself at the second vote, and, reaching for another voting card, again wrote the name of Aloisio Lorscheider upon it.

The Curial cardinals were eyeing Luciani with renewed interest. Their first task had been to halt the Pignedoli campaign for the Papacy. The second ballot confirmed they had achieved that object.

Siri 35 votes

Luciani 30 votes

Pignedoli 15 votes

Lorscheider 12 votes

The remaining 19 votes were again scattered.

The voting papers together with those from the first ballot were stuffed into the antiquated stove, the ‘nero’ handle was pulled and black smoke, instead of emerging outside on the roof promptly filled the Sistine Chapel. Despite the fact that the funeral of Pope Paul and the Conclave were costing the Church several million dollars, some Vatican official decided to save a lira or two and had decreed that the chimney should not be swept. The result, with all windows sealed, threatened to bring the Conclave to a sudden and dramatic end. The late Pope had not foreseen the possibility of all 111 cardinals being suffocated to death but he had provided for several members of the Vatican fire brigade to be locked in the area. They promptly risked excommunication by opening several windows.

Eventually some of the black smoke made its way out of the Sistine Chapel chimney and Vatican Radio confirmed that the morning had not produced a Pope. Many Vatican experts had predicted a long Conclave, reasoning that it would take a great deal of time for 111 men from around the world to arrive at any form of relative unanimity. Seeing the black smoke, the pundits nodded sagely and continued in their attempts to prise from the Vatican Press office such vital details as the lunch menu in the Conclave.

The biggest and most diverse Conclave in the Church’s entire history moved hastily out of the Sistine Chapel to the temporary canteen.

The third ballot would be crucial. Siri and Luciani were finely balanced. While a very troubled Patriarch of Venice picked at his food, others were busy. Giovanni Benelli talked quietly to the cardinals from Latin America. They had made their point, he assured them, but clearly a Pope from the Third World was not going to emerge during this Conclave. Did they want a man like Siri with his reactionary views on the throne? Why not a man who, if not from the Third World, clearly loved it? It was no secret, Benelli told them, that Luciani was voting for their own Aloisio Lorscheider.

In fact Benelli was in danger of gilding the lily. The cardinals from Latin America had done their homework to a far greater degree than any other geographical group. Aware that their chances of electing Lorscheider were not great they had, before the Conclave, prepared a short list of non-Curial Italians. One of the men with whom they discussed the list was Father Bartolomeo Sorge, a Jesuit priest based in Rome. During a two-hour discussion Sorge pointed out the various aspects for and against each of the possibles. The name that had emerged was Albino Luciani. Father Sorge recalled for me his final words of advice to the group of cardinals:

If you want to elect a Pope who will help to build up the Church in the world, then you should vote for Luciani. But remember he is not a man who is accustomed to governing, consequently he will need a good Secretary of State.

As the quiet buzz of conversation continued, Cardinals Suenens, Marty and Gantin, less flamboyantly but with equal effectiveness, spoke to others who were still wavering. Koenig of Vienna quietly remarked to those sitting near him that non-Italians should have no objection to another Italian as their spiritual leader.

The Curia were also considering their options over lunch. It had been a good morning for them. They had stopped Pignedoli. Siri, their candidate that morning, had clearly reached his maximum position. Despite all the pressure they had exerted before the Conclave it was now obvious to Felici and his clique that the left and the centre could not be drawn in sufficient numbers to Siri. Luciani, the quiet man from Venice, would surely be easy to control in the Vatican. Those who yearned for a pre-Vatican II Papacy were not convinced. They pointed out that Luciani more than any other Italian cardinal had put into practice the spirit of Pope John’s Vatican Council.

In England everything stops for tea. In Italy the same state of suspended animation is achieved during siesta. While some lingered in the dining hall, talking quietly, others retired to their rooms to sleep. In cell 60, Albino Luciani knelt and prayed.

‘You can’t make gnocchi out of this dough,’ Luciani had remarked to several well-wishers before the Conclave. It now appeared that a significant number of his fellow cardinals disagreed with this self-evaluation.

Through prayer he sought the answer, not to the ultimate result of the balloting, but to what he should do if elected. Luciani, who had never wanted to be anything other than a parish priest, stood on the threshold of the most powerful position in the Roman Catholic Church and went down on his knees earnestly to entreat his God to choose someone else.