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PAGE 4—-The Southern Cross, August 10,1978
Papal Interregnum
(Continued from page 3)
Despite his -emphasis on
behind-the-scenes diplomacy, at times
the pope spoke out vehemently on
political issues, particularly in Italy,
where he led the fight in a 1974
referendum to repeal Italy’s liberalized
divorce laws, where he strongly attacked
proposals to liberalize abortion laws,
and where he called for the formation
of a Catholic bloc to defeat Communists
in the 1976 general elections.
Despite the pope’s appeal, the
Communist Party made major gains,
winning a total of 7 2 additional seats in
the two houses of Parliament and a
number of municipal elections,
including the one in Rome, as one in
every three Italian voters voted
Communist.
Six months later, Pope Paul
received Rome’s first Communist
mayor, Giulio Argan, privately two days
after the mayor had attended the pope’s
World Peace Day Mass at a suburban
Rome church. The pope asked the
mayor and other leftist city officials to
preserve Rome’s unique Christian
character.
At the World Day of Peace Mass in
the presence of the Communist mayor
and diplomats accredited to the
Vatican, Pope Paul issued one of the
strongest and frankest attacks of his
reign against those who seek abortion
and against laws which permit them to
do so.
“Who could suppose that a mother
would kill her offspring or let it be
killed?” he asked. “What drug, what
legal gilding can ever deaden the
remorse of a woman who has freely and
consciously murdered the fruit of her
womb?”
Despite the pope’s pleas, legal
abortion became a reality in Italy in
June, 1978, after Parliament passed a
law providing for state-paid abortions in
the first three months of pregnancy.
Pope Paul publicly lamented the law
and his vicar for the Rome Diocese,
Cardinal Ugo Poletti, warned Italians
that anyone participating in an abortion
was automatically excommunicated.
Most of the doctors and nurses in the
country declared themselves unable in
conscience to participate in abortion
operations.
When prominent Italian Catholic
politician Aldo Moro was kidnapped by
ultraleftist terrorists in March, 1978,
Pope Paul made repeated public pleas -
including a rare letter in his own
handwriting - for Moro’s release. When
Moro was killed two months later, Pope
Paul broke with tradition to attend the
state funeral personally.
The pope’s outspokenness was not
limited to Italy. In 1975, he highlighted
a long-standing confrontation with Gen.
Francisco Franco of Spain by appealing
for clemency for five terrorists
condemned to death and publicly
declaring bitterness that Franco had
chosen “the path of murderous
repression” after the five were killed.
In the later years of his pontificate,
Pope Paul seemed to focus his efforts
more and more strongly on the heart of
the church’s mission in the world,
building a community of faith, white his
earlier years were more noted for their
emphasis on structural and
administrative changes needed to carry
on the reform and renewal demanded
by the council.
In this context the successive world
Synod of Bishops called by Pope Paul
were an interesting mirror of his papacy.
Designed to provide reflection for
the pope from the world’s bishops on
topics of particularly pressing concern
to the church, the synods were a good
indication of Pope Paul’s major
concerns.
The first synod, Sept. 29 - Oct. 29,
1967, dealt chiefly with consideration
of an international theological
commission to provide the pope and the
Doctrinal Congregation with broader
theological research and reflection; with
making the revised Code of Canon Law
more pastoral in tone; with the
relationship of bishops’ conferences to
seminaries in their respective areas; and
with general approval of the revisions of
the liturgical texts and norms for the
Mass.
The second synod, an extraordinary
session in 1969, was called by Pope Paul
to discuss the nature of “collegiality”:
the role of the “college” of bishops --
the world’s bishops as a group -- in
relation to the pope and to one another.
The third meeting, in 1971, was
actually only the second General
Assembly of the Synod, since the 1969
meeting was an extraordinary session.
This meeting had two topics: the
priesthood, reflecting the worldwide
crisis atmosphere over massive departure
from the priesthood and huge drops in
seminary students;. and justice in the
world, which the synod fathers called “a
constitutive dimension” of the church’s
task of preaching the Gospel.
By 1974, at its fourth (third
general) assembly under Pope Paul, the
Synod of Bishops dealt with the heart
of the church’s mission, evangelization
or the preaching of the good news of
Jesus Christ.
On Sept. 27, 1974, formally
opening the fourth assembly of the
synod, whose topic was “Evangelization
of the Modem World,” Pope Paul said
that evangelization must never use
“methods which are in open conflict
with the spirit of the Gospel.”
He added: “Neither violence,
therefore, nor revolution, nor
colonialism in any form will serve as
means for the church’s evangelizing
action, nor will politics for itself...”
He called on the next synod, at the
end of 1977, to address a central
followup topic of evangelization --
catechesis, or religious education.
That synod, the final one under
Pope Paul, endorsed modem
catechetical methods and stressed such
areas as the need for continuing
religious education of Catholics
throughout their lifetime, the right of
the church to teach religion, the need
for catechists to teach solid and
complete doctrine, and the importance
of living Christian witness as a part of
catechetical formation.
In his closing speech Pope Paul
praised the “pre-eminently pastoral
concern” guiding the synod discussions
and cited the need of sound catechetics
“to make men’s faith become living,
conscious and active.”
He stressed the importance of a
systematic presentation of all Christian
beliefs and made a pointed appeal for
religious freedom. “Unfortunately there
are not a few nations,” he said, in which
the church’s right to teach and instruct
is “trampled upon or at least unjustly
limited.”
At the 1974 synod Pope Paul
emphasized the need for the church to
preserve what is valid from the past
while remaining open to change for the
better, a theme that characterized his
whole reign.
The concept of renewal involved in
that approach was one of the themes of
the Holy Year of 1975, which Pope Paul
first announced in May, 1973, at a
general audience.
After considering “whether such a
tradition should be continued in our
times,” the pope said, “the essential
concept of the Holy Year” convinced
him that the tradition is still timely.
This central idea of the Holy Year “is
the interior renewal of man,” he said.
Such inner renewal of man, Pope
Paul said, “is what the Gospel calls
conversion, penance and a change of
heart.”
Although former Holy Years were
first celebrated in Rome and were then
extended throughout the world, “now
this extension will precede the
celebration,” he said. He set June 10,
1973, as the starting date for the
18-month-long local church phase of the
Holy Year.
This phase included informational
and educational programs, retreats,
penitential celebrations and pilgrimages
to fulfill conditions for gaining the Holy
Year Indulgence.
The other theme of the Holy Year
was reconciliation. The pope called for
reconciliation, first of all, with God, and
then within the church community, in
society, in international relations and in
ecumenism.
On May 23, 1974, Pope Paul
formally proclaimed the Holy Year in
the bull “Apostolorum Limina”
(“Memorials of the Apostles”). In it he
explained the conditions necessary for
gaining the Holy Year indulgence and
discussed the themes of renewal and
reconciliation.
In calling for a review of the work
of renewing the pastoral ministry that
began with the Second Vatican Council,
he drew attention to the need for
“balance between tradition and renewal,
between the necessarily religious nature
of the Christian apostolate and its
effectiveness as a force in all fields of
social living, between free and
spontaneous activity -- which some are
accustomed to call charismatic - in this
apostolate and fidelity to laws based on
the commands of Christ and the pastors
of the church.”
The theme of reconciliation was the
subject of an apostolic exhortation
issued by the pope on Dec. 8,1974. He
urged bishops, clergy and faithful
throughout the world to heal the “spirit
of faction” now dividing the church.
But he also firmly stated that,
properly understood, “pluralism of
research and thought” has a “legitimate
right of citizenship in the church.”
Pope Paul ushered in the Roman
observance of the Holy Year on
Christmas Eve, 1974, by opening the
Holy Door in St. Peter’s Basilica. During
this phase of the observance, he made
himself even more visible than usual,
increasing general audiences to two a
week, taking part in more than the usual
number of liturgical ceremonies, and
using every possible occasion to
proclaim the message of renewal and
reconciliation.
In June, 1975, in an address to
members of the College of Cardinals,
the pope assessed the state of the
church in the midst of the Holy Year.
“A current of intense spirituality
pervades the world,” he said, “and one
would have to be blind not to recognize
it.” He noted the prayerfulness of the
millions of pilgrims who had made
sacrifices to come to Rome.
But he also expressed “the deepest
regret that some of our sons and
daughters (we shall always consider
them in this way) persist in positions
which are positions of doctrinal
uncertainity, when they are not
positions of destructive criticism, hostile
diffidence or connivance with ideologies
that are opposed to the Gospel and to
the church.”
Shutting the huge, bronze Holy
Door to end the Holy Year on
Christmas Eve, the pope prophesied
boldly: “The civilization of love will
prevail over the anxiety of implacable
social struggles, and it will give the
world the longed-for transfiguration of
humanity, that, at last, is Christian.”
The Vatican’s Ostpolitik, its
attempt to reach an accommodation
with the Communist governments of
Eastern Europe aroused the ire of those
who believed no compromise with
officially atheistic regimes was possible.
Many also considered the negotiations
and agreements a betrayal of those in
Eastern European countries whose
fidelity to the church and opposition to
the government had won them
harrassment, imprisonment, torture and
death.
Despite criticisms Pope Paul
patiently pursued his Ostpolitik and
achieved limited but real concessions in
several Eastern European countries.
Bishoprics in Hungary left vacant for
years were filled. Polish bishops boldly
confronted the government on many
issues and the church there thrived.
While the Czechoslovakian government
put increased pressure on many areas of
Catholic life, in 1978 it finally
recognized Cardinal Frantisek Tomasek
as archbishop of Prague, and it allowed
the Vatican to re-draw ecclesiastical
boundaries in Slovakia for the first time
since World War II.
Vatican viewpoints were
represented at international political
conferences such as that at Helsinki in
1975 on European security and
cooperation, and its followup in
Belgrade in 1977-78, in which human
rights — including religious rights —
were part of the agenda.
Repeatedly in the later years of his
pontificate, Pope Paul lamented
criticism of the church by Catholics and
decried the decadence of modem times.
In an unusual gesture in June, 1975, at a
general audience, he asked pardon of
dissenting Catholics for remarks of his
that may have offended them.
It was not only those advocating
greater changes in the church whom the
pope criticized. In May, 1976, in an
uncustomarily direct reference made
during a secret consistory, the pope
appealed to traditionalist Archbishop
Marcel Lefebvre to heed his repeated
calls for obedience. Archbishop
Lefebvre is the leader of a traditionalist
movement which rejects most of the
council’s decrees, and especially
postconciliar liturgical changes.
Two months later, after the
archbishop, disobeying the pope’s
orders, had ordained 13 priests and 13
subdeacons who had studied at a
seminary he heads, the Vatican
suspended him from his priestly
functions. Papal attempts to reach a
reconciliation failed, and Archbishop
Lefebvre continued to defy the pope,
ordaining additional priests in 1977 and
1978, publicly attacking conciliar
documents and high church officials as
he traveled around the world promoting
a return to the preconciliar church.
When the archbishop ordained 18
priests in June, 197 8, Pope Paul issued a
public warning that the “moment of
truth” was approaching for church
dissidents.
Continuing concern for liturgical
and devotional renewal were evident in
the publication in February, 1974, of a
new ritual for the sacrament of penance
or reconciliation by the Congregation
for Divine Worship and in March of that
year of an apostolic exhortation
“Marialis Cultus” (“Devotion of
Mary”).
The new ritual stressed communal
and ecclesial aspects of the sacrament of
penance. It embodied the concept that
sin is an offence against God and at the
same time against one’s brothers and
sisters, and that penance is therefore a
reconciliation with God and with the
church.
In “Marialis Cultus,” the pope
sought to encourage the development of
devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and
“the restoration, in a dynamic and more
informed manner, of the recitation of
the Rosary.”
To demonstrate the relevance of
the Blessed Virgin to modem times, the
pope related various aspects of her life
to aspirations of the women’s liberation
movement. Women concerned about
participation in decision-making, he
said, will note that Mary “taken into
dialogue with God, gives her active and
responsible consent, not to the solution
of a contingent problem, but that ‘event
of world importance,’ as the Incarnation
of the Word has rightly been called.”
He also pointed out that Mary’s
choice of virginity was not a rejection of
the values of the married state “but a
courageous choice which she made in
order to consecrate herself totally to the
love of God.”
Pope Paul’s restatement of the
exalted status of the Blessed Virgin in
Catholic devotion was followed a year
later by a personal restatement of the
church’s traditional ban against
ordaining women to the priesthood. The
church cannot ordain women to the
priesthood because Christ’s call to them
- to be “disciples and collaborators” but
not ordained ministers — cannot be
changed, he said on April 18, 1975, in
an address to a committee studying the
church’s response to the United
Nations-sponsored International
Women’s Year.
As the Anglican Church moved
closer to approval of women priests,
Pope Paul declared in correspondence
with Anglican Archbishop Donald
Coggan of Canterbury, made public in
1976, that such a move would pose
grave difficulty for Catholics and a new
obstacle to Anglican-Catholic reunion.
In 1977, with the pope’s approval, the
Doctrinal Congregation issued a formal
declaration that the church, in fidelity
to the Gospel, considers itself unable to
ordain women as priests.
Another major aspect of Pope
Paul’s pontificate was the high number
of new saints he proclaimed — 84, far
more than any other pope in recent
history. These included two huge
groups, the 22 Ugandan martyrs and 40
martyrs of England and Wales. They
also included St. Elizabeth Ann Bayley
Seton, first canonized saint in what is
now the United States. Many of the
others were 19th-century missionary
priests and nuns and founders or
foundresses of religious congregations.
As part of Holy Year efforts to advance
saints’ causes, he reduced the number of
miracles required for the canonization
of Bohemian-born Redemptorist Bishop
John Nepomucene Neumann of
Philadelphia, paving the way for his
canonization in 1977 instead of much
later.
At the time of his election, Pope
Paul was described as a “slight figure of
ascetic appearance.” He was five feet 10
inches tall and weighted 154 pounds.
Despite his age, he maintained
remarkable health.
Arthritis slowed him down
somewhat in the later years, but he still
maintained a heavy schedule.
In March, 1977, he had a
bout with the flu that forced him to
cancel a general audience and several
private meetings. Although he was six
months past his 79th birthday, he was
reported working from his bed within
two days.
A year later his advancing age was
signaled when another bout with the flu
forced him to cancel audiences, visits
and ceremonies for two weeks. For the
first time in his 15-year pontificate he
had to skip all public Holy Week
services in Rome, although he was able
to celebrate his usual Easter morning
Mass in St. Peter’s Square and deliver
the traditional Easter blessing “urbi et
orbi” (to the city and the world).
In an introduction to a collection
of speeches and writings by Pope Paul
prior to his election to the papacy,
Cardinal Augustin Bea, the German
Jesuit who was first president of the
Vatican Secretariat for Promoting
Christian Unity, sought to “create a
mental portrait of Paul VI.”
Cardinal Bea cited the program that
Pope Paul had sketched out for his
pontificate: completion of the Second
Vatican Council; the reform of canon
law; world peace; Christian unity;
dialogue with the modem world; and
reform of the Roman Curia. These were
the pope’s principal concerns.
Describing the person of the pope,
Cardinal Bea noted his “extreme
simplicity” in dealing with others, a
simplicity “based on a profound and at
the same time quite natural modesty
and humility.” The cardinal recalled
that at the opening of the second
session of the council, the pope, in a
voice trembling with emotion, asked
pardon for whatever he, or the Catholic
Church, may have contributed to the
separation among Christians.
The cardinal also recalled the
pope’s action in setting aside the
protocol of centuries in his dealings
with the Orthodox patriarchs.
“All this,” the cardinal said, “might
lead some people to suppose that the
pope has a winning manner, if not
exactly like Pope John’s, nevertheless
with at least some facility and success.
But this is not the case. His slim and
rather austere figure, the vigor which
shines in his face, tense in recollection
or in reaching for the goals which his
will proposes, even the rather dark
complexion of his face, do not tend to
popular appeal. Again, his long sojourn
in the Secretariat of State, whose
extremely delicate work exacts great
prudence and circumspection, too easily
leads many people to suspect that this
or that word, this or that gesture or
attitude, is studied and calculated,
rather than the spontaneous expression
of his mind.”
The pope, Cardinal Bea said, had
succeeded in overcoming this obstacle
by such actions as his spontaneous visit
on Christmas Day to a poor paralyzed
girl in a Rome suburb, his visit to a
crippled Moslem in Jerusalem and his
spontaneous piety during his visit to the
Holy Places.
It was travels like those which gave
Pope Paul Vi’s reign its stamp as a
pilgrim’s journey. And it was his
message — to seek peace through justice
— which pointed the way to a global
goal, peace.
(Contributing to this biography
were Frederick Green, John Maher and
Jerry Filteau.)
BY JOHN MAHER
During the period of vacancy of the
Apostolic See, the church is governed
by the College of Cardinals. It cannot,
however, make decisions reserved to the
pope during his lifetime. Such matters
must be postponed until, the new pope
is elected.
During the vacancy, the College of
Cardinals governs through general and
particular congregations. Major
decisions are taken by majority vote of
general congregations, which consist of
all the members of the College of
Cardinals, unless they are legitimately
prevented from attending. The dean of
the College of Cardinals, now Cardinal
Carlo Confalonieri, 85, the subdean,
now Cardinal Paolo Marella, 83, or the
senior cardinal presides over general
congregations.
Daily decisions of a routine nature
are left to particular congregations,
which consist of the cardinal
cameriengo or chamberlain, now
Cardinal Jean ViHot, 72, papal secretary
of state, and three other cardinals
chosen by lot from those who have the
right to elect the pope.
The cardinal chamberlain is in
charge of ordinary administration of the
goods and temporal rights of the Holy
See. It is up to him to verify officially
the death of the pope, to seal the pope’s
private apartment, to take possession of
the Vatican palace and the palaces of
the Lateran and Castelgandolfo, and to
inform the papal vicar for the Rome
Diocese of the pope’s death. The
cardinal chamberlain can also grant
permission to photograph the dead
pope, but only if the pope is wearing
pontifical vestments. Pope John XXIII
made this provision because Pope Pius
XII’s personal physician had
photographed the dead pope and turned
the pictures over to newspapers and
magazines.
The dean of the College of
Cardinals has the job of informing the
other cardinals of the pope’s death, of
calling them together for the
congregations of the college and of
giving notice of the pope’s death to the
heads of nations and to the diplomatic
corps accredited to the Holy See.
Cardinals in charge of Vatican
congregations lose their positions with
the death of the pope. The papal vicar
for the Diocese of Rome remains in
office for the ordinary running of the
diocese, as does the major penitentiary,
or head of the Apostolic Penitentiary,
which decides on cases of conscience
and grants absolutions and
dispensations. The papal undersecretary
of state keeps the secretariat running,
maintaining the status quo, and papal
nuncios and apostolic delegates remain
in office. The Vatican congregations, or
major departments of the church’s
central administration, retain
jurisdiction for ordinary affairs but are
not to initiate new business. Vatican
tribunals continue to deal with cases.
If a pope should die during a
session of an ecumenical council or of
the Synod of Bishops, it would
automatically be suspended.
The cardinal chamberlain and the
senior cardinal of each rank of cardinals
— cardinal bishops, cardinal priests and
cardinal deacons — set a day to begin
holding general congregations
preparatory to entry into the conclave,
or secret meeting for the election of the
new pope. These general congregations
are to be held daily, even during the
time of the funeral rites of the dead
pope.
During these general congregations,
the cardinals are to:
— Swear to observe the provisions
of Pope Paul’s “Romano Pontifici
Eligendo”;
— Set the times for viewing by the
faithful of the dead pope’s body:
— Set the dates for the nine funeral
masses for the dead pope;
— Name two commissions of three
cardinals each. One is to designate those
who are to enter the conclave, the other
is to take care of sealing off the area of
the Vatican palace to be used for the
conclave and preparing the cells in
which the cardinals are to live during
the conclave:
— Examine and approve expenses
of the conclave;
— Read any documents left by the
dead pope for the College of Cardinals;
— Arrange for the destruction of
the pope’s fisherman’s ring and personal
seals;
— Distribute by lot the cells of the
conclave;
— Fix the day and hour of entry
into the conclave.
The word “conclave” (from Latin
“con” or “cum” meaning “with” and
“clavis” meaning “key”) means a room
that can be locked up and refers to the
locked place where the cardinal electors
choose the pope and where they stay
night and day until the election has
taken place. Normally a section of the
Vatican palace is used.
After the pope dies, cardinal
electors who are in Rome must wait 15
days before entering into the conclave.
The College of Cardinals may delay
entry beyond that time but must begin
the conclave after 20 days have passed.
The number of cardinal electors
must not exceed 120, and none of
them, at the moment of entry into the
conclave, may have passed his 80th
birthday.
In the early centuries of the
church’s history, the clergy and laity of
the Rome diocese and bishops of
neighboring dioceses participated in the
election of the pope. Reservation of the
right to elect the pope to cardinals, who
were originally priests of the leading
parishes of Rome, was ordered by Pope
Alexander in in 1179. The conclave
system of strict enclosure was instituted
by Pope Gregory X in 1274.
No cardinal can be excluded from
voting by any excommunication,
suspension or other church censure.
Non-cardinals permitted to enter
the conclave include: the secretary of
the College of Cardinals, who acts as
secretary of the conclave; the papal
vicar general for Vatican City and one
or more assistants for the care of the
sacristy; the papal master of ceremonies
and assistants; a number of religious
priests to hear confessions; a surgeon
and a general physician with one or two
assistants; the architect of the conclave
and two technicians; and other persons
to take care of the conclave’s needs. The
college chooses all these by majority
vote. All must swear to absolute secrecy
about events of the conclave.
Formerly each cardinal could take
two persons with him into the conclave,
either clergy or laity, but Pope Paul VI
eliminated this practice, except by
permission of the chamberlain in case of
serious illness.
On the day set for entry into the
conclave the cardinal electors assemble
in St. Peter’s Basilica, attend a Mass of
the Holy Spirit and enter the conclave.
There they hear read the second part of
Pope Paul’s constitution on electing the
pope and take an oath to observe its
rules, to observe absolute secrecy
concerning what happens in the
conclave, and not to allow civil
authorities to interfere in any way with
the election.
The conclave is then searched to
make sure no unauthorized persons or
recording or transmitting equipment are
present. It is then closed inside and
outride and the closure is duly certified.
No one is admitted after that except by
special permission, and no printed
material or letters are to be received
except letters under seal from the
Apostolic Penitentiary to the cardinal
who is major penitentiary.
The next morning after Mass, the
cardinals begin to vote.
There are three valid methods of
election. The first is by unanimous
acclamation expressed freely and aloud.
The second, by delegation, occurs when
every cardinal elector present agrees to
choose a group of cardinals — an uneven
number from nine to 15 — to carry out
the election according to agreed
instructions.
The third and most usual method is
by scrutiny or ballot, with two voting
sessions every morning and afternoon
until a candidate receives two-thirds of
the votes plus one. Voting takes place in
the Sistine Chapel.
Ballot cards are distributed to the
cardinals who, disguising their
handwriting, write the name of the
candidate they choose. In order of
precedence, each one goes to the altar
and places the ballot in a receptacle.
The cards are then counted. If they do
not correspond to the number of
electors, they are burned and a new vote
taken. If the number of cards matches
that of electors, three scrutineers —
cardinals chosen by lot — each count
the cards, with the last reading aloud
the name on each card so all the electors
can write it down. The scrutineers then
add up the votes each individual has
received.
Whether or not any one has
received the required number of votes,
three revisers check the cards and
addition. Then the cards and any notes
the electors have made are burned.
When no new pope has been elected, the
paper is burned with damp straw and
black smoke is seen in St. Peter’s
Square. The paper is burned without the
straw when a pope has been elected, and
this produces the traditional white
smoke that sends first news to the
outside world that there is a new pope.
If no election has occurred after
three days, a day is taken for prayer,
discussions among the voters and
exhortation by the senior cardinal
deacon. Voting then continues with
pauses after each seven sessions. After
two such series of seven sessions, the
cardinals can decide unanimously to
proceed by delegation, by requiring
only a simple majority of votes plus
one, or by choosing between the two
who received the greatest number of
votes in the preceding session.
Any baptized male Catholic is
eligible to be pope, but since 1404 the
one elected has always been a cardinal
and since 1523 always an Italian.
If one of the cardinal electors is
elected pope, the cardinal dean, or the
cardinal first in seniority, asks him if he
accepts the election, and what name he
wishes to use. If the one elected accepts
and is already a bishop, he immediately
has full and absolute jurisdiction over
the whole church. If he is not a bishop,
he is immediately ordained a bishop.
The conclave is then over. Each cardinal
elector then makes an act of homage
and obedience to the new pope.
The senior cardinal deacon then
proclaims the new pope to the people
waiting outside, and the pope gives the
apostolic blessing “urbi et orbi” (to the
city and the world).
Finally, at a time designated by the
pope, the senior cardinal deacon crowns
him. The coronation, however, is merely
a liturgical function and does not add to
papal power. <nc News svc.)