Papal conclave, 1958

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Pope Pius XII died on October 9, 1958 in Castel Gandolfo, the papal summer residence in Italy, after a 19-year papacy. Pius had initiated a series of liturgical reforms to the Mass that in some ways were the forerunner of Vatican II changes; in one version of the Mass he introduced vocal participation by the congregation that was to become a standard feature of the Mass of Paul VI. He also excercized infallibly in his encyclical Munificentissimus Deus, which proclaimed the dogma of the Assumption of Mary. However, his papacy was also dominated by the events of World War II, The Holocaust, and later the Cold War.

Pius had to that point been the longest reigning pope in the twentieth century; Pope Leo XIII, through he died in at the beginning of the century, had begun his reign and spent most of it in the nineteenth century. Some churchmen felt it was time for a change of style in pontiff.

The Case of Giovanni Montini

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Giovanni Montini had been one of the stars of the Curia in the 1930s and 1940s. A skilled diplomat and the Assistant (sostituto) Secretary of State for Internal (or Ordinary) Affairs, many presumed that he would of course be made a cardinal in one of Pope Pius's consistories. For most of his reign -- with the exception of the five years Luigi Cardinal Maglione was Secretary of State, Pius XII himself acted as his own secretary of state, a position that he had held under the previous pope Pius XI. Unexpectedly in 1955, Pius removed Montini completely from the curia and made him the Archbishop of Milan, one of the most senior dioceses in Italy, and which had produced many popes. Invariably Milanese archbishops are made cardinals at the next consistory. Yet again, surprisingly, this did not happen to Montini.

Two explanations have been made for this unusual decision. It was claimed that the Pope had already offered Montini a cardinalate in 1953 but that it had been turned down. This was never verified. It was also alleged that Sister Pasqualina Lehnert, a nun who had run the Pope's household since his days as a nuncio in Bavaria, had taken a strong dislike to Montini. The Pope's health had deteriorated in the 1950s particularly due to the questionable medical treatment he received from a so-called doctor that Pius had befriended. Critics of the pope within and outside the Curia claimed that the nun exercised considerable influence during Pius's final years (some ridiculed her as La Popessa) and used her position to poison Pius's mind against Montini.

An alternative reason was that Montini declined the red hat because his counterpart as the Assistant (sostituto) Secretary of State for External (Extraordinary) Affairs, Msgr. Domenico Tardini, had already declined elevation to the cardinalate. As Montini felt that he could not accept it as long as Tardini had not, he declined the promotion. Whatever the reason he was not promoted, the situation persisted as a stalemate between the two men' promotion until Montini was promoted to be the new Archbishop of Milan in 1955. Both Montini and Tardini were consecrated (ordained) as bishops, and Tardini remained in Rome as the sostituto Secretary of State. It wasn't until Pius XII died in 1958 that Tardini himself was promoted to being Secretary of State in his own right, and was promoted as cardinal as well.

For whatever reason, Montini, who was widely tipped as the likely next pope had he had been a member of the College of Cardinals, was excluded, though even as Archbishop of Milan he still managed to pick up some votes, given that the cardinals are not restricted to choosing a pope from among their ranks. Montini was made a cardinal by the new Pope John XXIII and succeeded him as Pope Paul VI. As a sign of his admiration -- and some say also his sympathy for his friend's exile to Milan -- Pope John XXIII listed Montini at the top of his list of his first consistory of cardinals. This gave Montini the privilege of being the individual who would celebrate the yearly mass, at the pope's own pleasure, which would commemorate the pope's election as Supreme Pontiff. John XXIII would also go on to consult closely with Cardinal Montini about all his plans concerning the planning and execution of the upcoming Vatican II (First Session 1962).

Papal Conclave

A conclave was held on October 25-28 to choose his successor. In the absence of the popular Montini, the papabili included was the Armenian Gregoire Cardinal Agagianian and the conservative Giuseppe Cardinal Siri.

The mysterious case of 'Pope Gregory XVII'

Assocates of Siri later claimed that the cardinal had actually achieved the two-thirds majority necessary to be pope, that he was offered the papacy and accepted, announcing that his regnal name would be Pope Gregory XVII, only to be forced to change his mind after it was claimed that his strong anti-communist policies would lead to wide-spread persecution of Catholics in the Eastern Bloc. Siri accepted this suggestion, before announcing "Non Accepto", "I do not accept [the Papacy]". The then priest and later author Father Malachi Martin even claimed to have been the conduit of the information that led to Siri's decision to change his mind and not take on the papacy.

A United States Federal Bureau of Investigation allegedly claimed that Siri had indeed been elected on the third ballot.^{[#endnote_Siri]} What is unambiguously known is that Vatican Radio did conclude, on the basis of apparently white smoke, that a pope had been elected on the third ballot and announced it as such, telling listeners "The smoke is white. . . . There is absolutely no doubt. A pope has been elected."^{[#endnote_Vaticanradio]} An FBI source also claimed that Siri was elected on the third ballot.^{[#endnote_FBI]} After the 6pm 3rd ballot white smoke appeared, not only the public was confused. The Swiss Guards assembled to give the ceremonial salute to the new pontiff, only to have to withdraw again.

Some sedevacantist groups base their existence on the supposed deposition of the valid Papa Siri and the election of a supposedly invalid replacement. Despite this, Cardinal Siri unambiguously supported and submitted to the four pontiffs who were elected following his supposed election, and died in full communion with Rome.

Choosing Roncalli

As with many papal conclaves, the man eventually chosen to reign as pope was not one of the papabili but a mild-mannered former diplomat of working class origins, 77-year old Angelo Cardinal Roncalli, the Cardinal Patriarch of Venice and former nuncio to France. Roncalli's selection was a surprise to all, most particularly Roncalli, who arrived in Rome with a return train-ticket to Venice and who hoped for a short conclave so that he could return home.

Allegedly French cardinals came to Rome determined to elect a man some had dismissed as over-the-hill. The Frenchmen held their votes together even when Roncalli’s candidacy seemed to slip, gathered allies, and eventually got their candidate elected. It is reported, perhaps apocryphally, that one elderly and confused cardinal kept voting for “Achille Ratti” throughout the balloting.

Roncalli was elected on the 11th ballot, and took the regnant name John XXIII, a name not used since the 14th century. Though his reign was short, Good Pope John as he was widely called, energised the Catholic Church and touched the hearts of non-Catholics and Catholics alike with his warmth, kindness, humility, and sense of humour. His impact was shown when the fiercely anti-Catholic Belfast City Council decided to fly the flag over city hall at half-mast in his honour after his death.

PAPAL CONCLAVE, 1958

Duration	4 days
Number of ballots	11
Electors	51
Africa	1
Latin America	9
North America	4
Asia	3
Europe	33
Oceania	1
Italians	17
DECEASED POPE	PIUS XII (1939-1958)
NEW POPE	JOHN XXIII (1958-1963)

Footnotes

1. ↑  Department of State secret dispatch, "John XXIII," issue date: November 20, 1958, declassified: November 11, Paul L. Williams, The Vatican Exposed (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2003), pp. 90-92.
2. ↑  The Tablet, November 1, 1958
3. ↑  Department of State secret file, "Cardinal Siri," issue date: April 10, 1961, declassified: February 28, 1994, William, "'Op. Cit'' pp.90-92.

External links

• [Rev. Lawrence F. Murphy’s personal recollections of the epoch-making election of Pope John XXIII]

Papal Conclaves 1800–2005
1800 | 1823 | 1829 | 1830–1831 | 1846 | 1878 | 1903 | 1914 1922 | 1939 | 1958 | 1963 | 1978 (August) | 1978 (October) | 2005

 

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