Word: rome
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Paul's death came in the middle of the ferragosto, Italy's traditional August vacation break, and Curial Cardinals were scattered everywhere. Cables went out to them and to all Cardinals around the globe, summoning them to Rome. Sebastiano Baggio, head of the Vatican Congregation of Bishops, had to fly in from Colombia, where he was helping prepare an October meeting of Latin American bishops. On Tuesday, in the presence of those red hats who had arrived in the Eternal City, Villot raised a hammer and smashed the Fisherman's seal, inscribed with Paul's name, that had been removed...
...chosen in a virtual snap election of less than 36 hours, John XXIII in five days, Paul in less than 48 hours. Though anything is possible, no comparable speed is expected this time ? unless the weather plays a persuasive role. Even in the wilting heat and humidity of Rome in August, protocol demands that the Cardinals don violet cassocks topped with woolen capes. Their temporary living quarters (or "cells") in the Apostolic Palace during the conclave lack air conditioning. Says one prelate: "Perhaps the heat will combine with divine revelation to help them reach a decision quickly...
Italy has produced so many Popes partly because the Supreme Pontiff also serves as the Bishop of Rome. He must not only lead a catholic (that is, universal) church, but he must also be simpatico with the people of Rome and of Italy, to whom he is spiritual father. Would Romans applaud as enthusiastically for a Pakistani or a Canadian as he was borne down the main aisle of St. Peter's on the sedia gestatoria as they would for one of their own? A Vatican watcher points to the answer: "I don't know of one Italian Cardinal...
...major factor could be Italy's long-running political crisis. Communists control Rome and most of Italy's other major cities and are inching ever closer toward participation in the national government. For that reason, many analysts assume that a non-Italian is simply inconceivable. The crisis, however, cuts both ways. One American with Curial experience says that Italian bishops tell him that a non-Italian Pope is needed to shield the office from entanglement in no-win national disputes. Besides, remarks Jesuit James C. Carter (no kin), president of Loyola University of New Orleans, "the church is going...
Father John Navone, an American who teaches at the Jesuits' Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, says such perplexities "no longer can be solved by a one-man fiat. The new Pope must avail himself of the wisdom of the church by calling a Vatican III to resolve the momentous doctrinal, disciplinary and moral problems...