Pope John Paul I was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City from 26 August 1978 until his death 33 days later. His reign is among the shortest in papal history, resulting in the most recent year of three popes and the first to occur since 1605. John Paul I remains the most recent Italian-born pope, the last in a succession of such popes that started with Clement VII in 1523.
Giuseppe Siri was an Italian cardinal of the Catholic Church who served as Archbishop of Genoa from 1946 to 1987, and was elevated to the rank of cardinal in 1953. A protege of Pope Pius XII, he took part in the Second Vatican Council, and was at one point considered a papabile.
Papabile is an unofficial Italian term first coined by Vaticanologists and now used internationally in many languages to describe a Catholic man, in practice always a cardinal, who is thought a likely or possible candidate to be elected pope.
Universi Dominici gregis is an apostolic constitution of the Catholic Church issued by Pope John Paul II on 22 February 1996. It superseded Pope Paul VI's 1975 apostolic constitution, Romano Pontifici eligendo, and all previous apostolic constitutions and orders on the subject of the election of the pope.
A papal conclave is a gathering of the College of Cardinals convened to elect a bishop of Rome, also known as the pope. Catholics consider the pope to be the apostolic successor of Saint Peter and the earthly head of the Catholic Church.
A papal conclave was held on 18 and 19 April 2005 to elect a successor to John Paul II, who had died on 2 April 2005. Upon the pope's death, the cardinals of the Catholic Church who were in Rome met and set a date for the beginning of the conclave. Of the 117 eligible members of the College of Cardinals, those younger than 80 years of age at the time of the death of Pope John Paul II, all but two attended. After several days of private meetings attended by both cardinal electors and non-voting cardinals, the conclave began on 18 April 2005. It ended the following day after four ballots with the election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Dean of the College of Cardinals and Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Ratzinger was the first member of the Roman Curia to become pope since Pius XII, elected in 1939. After accepting his election, he took the name Benedict XVI.
The papal conclave held from 14 to 16 October 1978 was triggered by the death of John Paul I on 28 September 1978, just 33 days after he was elected pope. The conclave to elect John Paul I's successor ended after eight ballots. The cardinal electors selected Cardinal Karol Józef Wojtyła, Archbishop of Kraków, as the new pope. The third pope in the year, Wojtyła accepted his election and took the name John Paul II. It was the last conclave of the 20th century.
A papal conclave was held from 31 August to 3 September 1914 which elected Giacomo della Chiesa to succeed Pius X, who died on August 20, as pope. Della Chiesa, hitherto the archbishop of Bologna, took the name Benedict XV.
A papal conclave was held from 19 to 21 June 1963 to elect a successor of John XXIII, who had died on 3 June 1963. The cardinal electors assembled in Rome and, after six ballots, elected Cardinal Giovanni Battista Montini, Archbishop of Milan. He accepted the election and took the name Paul VI. Paul VI's coronation on 30 June was the last papal coronation to date.
A papal conclave took place from 25 to 28 October following the death of Pope Pius XII on 9 October 1958. On the eleventh ballot, the College of Cardinals elected Cardinal Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli as the new pope. He accepted the election and took the name John XXIII. He was the second patriarch of Venice to be elected pontiff in the 20th century after Pius X.
The papal conclave held on 1 and 2 March 1939 saw Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli elected on the third ballot to succeed Pius XI, who had died on 10 February, as pope. All 62 cardinals took part. Pacelli, who had been camerlengo and secretary of state, took the name Pius XII. The day was his 63rd birthday.
Romano Pontifici eligendo was the apostolic constitution governing the election of popes that was promulgated by Pope Paul VI on 1 October 1975. It instituted a number of far-reaching reforms in the process of electing popes. It set the maximum number of electors at 120 and restated in a more formal context the rule he had already instituted that cardinals over the age of 80 not participate in electing a pope.
Sergio Pignedoli was a prominent Italian Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church and a top candidate for pope. He served as auxiliary bishop to Pope Paul VI when he was archbishop of Milan, and as President of the Secretariat for Non-Christians from 1973 to 1980. He was elevated to the cardinalate in 1973.
Some hold the conspiracy theory which asserts that the conservative Cardinal Giuseppe Siri, then the Archbishop of Genoa, was elected pope in the 1958 papal conclave, taking the name Pope Gregory XVII, but that his election was suppressed. Siri did not associate himself with this idea.
Carlo Confalonieri was an Italian cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as prefect of the Congregation for Bishops from 1967 to 1973, and dean of the College of Cardinals from 1977 until his death. Confalonieri was elevated to the cardinalate in 1958.
Aloísio Leo Arlindo Lorscheider, O.F.M. was a Brazilian Roman Catholic cardinal during the 1970s and 1980s. He was known as an advocate of liberation theology in the 1970s and was seen by some observers as a serious candidate for the papacy in the two conclaves of 1978.
Pope John Paul I died suddenly in September 1978, 33 days after his election. Following his death, several conspiracy theories have sprung up.
The papal conclaves of August 1978 and of October 1978 were respectively convened to elect a pope, the leader of the Catholic Church, to succeed Paul VI and John Paul I following their respective deaths on 6 August 1978 and on 28 September 1978. In accordance with the apostolic constitution Romano Pontifici eligendo, which governed the vacancy of the Holy See, only cardinals who had not passed their 80th birthday on the day on which the conclave began were eligible to participate. Although not formal requirements, the cardinal electors invariably elected the pope from among their number and did so by secret ballot. Due to the brief duration between the conclaves, the respective lists of cardinal electors are nearly identical.
The Last Confession is a stage play by Roger Crane about the election and death of Pope John Paul I. The play follows Giovanni Benelli who recounts, during his last confession, his role in the death of John Paul and how this led him to lose his faith. It premiered at the Chichester Festival Theatre on 27 April 2007.
A conclave was convened on 12 March 2013 to elect a pope to succeed Benedict XVI, who had resigned on 28 February. 115 participating cardinal-electors gathered. On the fifth ballot, the conclave elected Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, SJ, Archbishop of Buenos Aires. He took the pontifical name Francis.
