Sub-Dean Clemente Micara Ballots 6 Camerlengo Benedetto Aloisi Masella | Secretary Francesco Carpino Start date 1963 Protodeacon Alfredo Ottaviani | |
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Dean Eugène-Gabriel-Gervais-Laurent Tisserant | ||
The Papal conclave of 1963 was convoked following the death of Pope John XXIII on 3 June that year in the Apostolic Palace. After the cardinal electors assembled in Rome, the conclave to elect John's successor began on 19 June and ended two days later, on 21 June, after six ballots. The cardinals elected Giovanni Battista Montini, then Archbishop of Milan, as the new pope. He accepted the election and took the pontifical name of Paul VI.
Contents
Background
John XXIII's death left the future of the Second Vatican Council in the balance, as the election of an anti-Council pope could have severely curbed the Council's role. The leading papabile candidates were Giovanni Battista Montini of Milan, who had not yet been Cardinal at the time of the previous conclave, and was supportive of reforms proposed at the Council; Giacomo Lercaro of Bologna, who was considered a liberal, close to the previous pope, John XXIII; and Giuseppe Siri of Genoa, papabile in 1958 and critical of these reforms. Reportedly, John XXIII had sent oblique signals indicating that he thought Montini would make a fine pope.
Election
The 1963 conclave, which was held from 19 to 21 June, at the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City, was the largest ever assembled until that time. There were eighty-two cardinals, but owing to his house arrest, József Mindszenty could not travel to Rome, while Carlos María de la Torre did not participate owing to his advanced age and chronic health problems. Of the eighty cardinals who did participate, eight had been elevated by Pope Pius XI, twenty-seven by Pius XII, and the remainder by John XXIII. Each cardinal elector was allowed one aide.
About the earlier ballots, various rumours persist: some allege that reform-minded cardinals initially voted for Leo Joseph Suenens of Mechelen-Brussels and Franz König of Vienna, to remind the electors that the pope does not have to be Italian, while others report that conservative cardinals attempted to block Montini's election in the early balloting. Due to the apparent deadlock, Cardinal Montini proposed to withdraw himself from being considered but was silenced by Giovanni Urbani the Patriarch of Venice. Another cardinal, Gustavo Testa, an old friend of John XXIII, lost his temper in the Chapel and demanded that the intransigents stop impeding Montini’s path. In a version of the Siri Thesis, some claim that Cardinal Siri received the two-thirds required for a valid election but eventually refused the office, allegedly under pressure. When asked two decades later whether in both the 1958 and 1963 conclaves he had initially been elected as pontiff, Siri is reported by Louis Hubert Remy to have responded "I am bound by the secret. This secret is horrible. I would have books to write about the different conclaves. Very serious things have taken place. But I can say nothing."[1] However, in public Siri fully submitted to the authority of all subsequent popes in his lifetime: John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul I, and John Paul II. Cardinal Grégoire-Pierre Agagianian the former Armenian Catholic Patriarch of Cilicia was also speculated to be papabile at the conclave and according to the Armenian Catholic Church website, was also rumored to have been elected at that conclave but declined to accept.
The favourite candidate, Giovanni Battista Montini, was elected after only six ballots. By the fourth ballot on 20 June, according to Time Magazine, the Milanese archbishop only needed four additional votes to obtain the required number of votes. When officially asked by Eugène-Gabriel-Gervais-Laurent Tisserant if he accepted his election, Montini replied, Accepto, in nomine Domini ("I accept, in the name of the Lord") and chose to be known as Pope Paul VI.
At 11:22 am, white smoke rose from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel, signifying the successful election of a new pope. Alfredo Ottaviani, in his capacity as the senior Cardinal Deacon, announced Montini's election in the traditional Latin; before Ottaviani had even finished saying Montini's name, the crowd beneath the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica erupted into applause. The following is a transcription of the Habemus Papam announcement as delivered by Cardinal Ottaviani.
Which, translated into English, can be read as follows:
(Note: Cardinal Ottaviani used the word "et" instead of "ac" the word usually used for "and" in the Habemus Papam formula itself).
Pope Paul VI shortly afterwards appeared on the balcony to give his first blessing. On this occasion, Paul VI chose not to give the traditional Urbi et Orbi blessing but instead imparted the shorter episcopal blessing as his first Apostolic Blessing. The following is the text of the blessing as delivered by Paul VI with the responses given by the others present:
Which translated into English means as follows:
After the Pope imparted the blessing, a plenary indulgence attached to the blessing just given was proclaimed.