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Gambling on papal elections has at least a 500-year history. Betting on 16th-century papal conclaves are among the first documented examples of gambling on election outcomes. [1] During the same period, gambling was also common on the outcomes of secular Italian elections, such as that of the Doge of Venice. [2]
The Republic of Venice forbade betting on the pope's life in 1419, and canceled bets already made. Life insurance policies were often taken out on the current pope, sometimes as genuine insurance by businessmen owed money by the papacy who feared a change of Pontiff, but also a purely speculative venture. Such policies on the lives of popes and other notable figures were forbidden in Barcelona (1435) and Genoa (1467 and 1494). [3]
The first recorded example of gambling on the candidate to be selected by a papal election occurs with the papal conclave, September 1503, although Frederic Baumgartner, a historian of papal elections, considers it then already "an old practice". [4]
Discussing the election of Leo X in 1513, it has been stated:
Before and during the papal conclave 1549–1550, many Roman bankers offered betting spreads on the papabili (cardinals likely to be elected). According to the Venetian Enrico Dandolo, a witness to the conclave, "it is more than clear that the merchants are very well informed about the state of the poll, and that the cardinals' attendants in Conclave go partners with them in wagers, which thus causes many tens of thousands of crowns to change hands". Dandolo describes an early example of insider trading. [6] Cardinal del Monte (who was eventually elected Julius III) had eventually started out as the favorite at 5–1, trailed by Salviati, Ridolfi, and Pole, but Pole was the favorite three days later at 4–1. [7] By December 5, Pole's odds had shortened to 100–95. [7] With the arrival of four additional French cardinals on December 11, Pole's odds drifted to 5–2. [8] On January 22, the odds quoted against the conclave finishing during January were 10–9, against February: 2–1, against March: 5–1, and never: 10–1. [9]
In March 1591, Pope Gregory XIV imposed a penalty of excommunication against any who wagered on the outcome or length of papal elections (as well as the creation of cardinals), [1] and banned the practice in the Papal States. [10] The canon was abrogated (along with the rest of existing canon law) by Pope Benedict XV's reforms [11]
According to a New York Times article following the papal conclave, 1878: "The Italians are all superstitious, and all fond of the lottery. Every great event leads to speculation in numbers. The deaths and advents of the Popes has always given rise to an excessive amount of gambling in the lottery, and today the people of Italy are in a state of excitement that is indescribable. Figures are picked out which have some relation with the life or death of Pius IX. Every day large sums are paid for tickets in the lottery about to be drawn." [12]
Gambling over the outcomes of the papal conclave, 1903 and papal conclave, 1922 was covered in several newspapers. [1] [13] With the 1903 conclave, the Italian government-run lottery offered odds on the pope's death and, had Pope Leo XIII died a week earlier, the government would have lost over $1,000,000. [14]
There was extensive betting in Britain over the elections of Pope John Paul I and Pope John Paul II, and the English Catholic primate, the Archbishop of Westminster felt it necessary to forbid participation by Catholics.
Paddy Power, [15] Ireland's largest bookmaker, started taking bets on the successor of Pope John Paul II five years before the pontiff's death. [16] British bookmakers such as Pinnacle Sports and William Hill plc also offered such bets, with significantly different odds. [17] Cardinal Ratzinger, the eventual choice of the papal conclave, 2005 as Pope Benedict XVI, started out with 12-1 odds, but was a 3-1 favorite at the time of the conclave. [16] Mr. Power, the proprietor of Paddy Power, was evicted from St. Peter's Square by security staff before the start of the 2005 conclave for displaying his betting prices, [16] by what he claims were undercover police officers. [18] Paddy Power alone took over $382,000 in bets on the conclave, making it—according to Mr. Power—"the biggest non-sports betting market of all time". [16] With Pope Benedict XVI's resignation on February 28, 2013, [19] Paddy Power's website [20] for Papal conclave, 2013 lists the current successors to Pope Benedict XVI. On March 13, 2013, Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected Pope Francis. Prior to Pope Francis' election, the odds were 25-to-1 of Bergoglio becoming pope, according to betting company William Hill Plc. [21] [22] Paddy Power's website also posted 25-to-1 odds shortly before Pope Francis' election. [23]
Gambling on Papal conclaves is largely internet based, as most conventional sport books, such as those in Las Vegas, do not accept bets on election outcomes. [24] A handicapper for Bally's and Paris Las Vegas said the casinos refused to accept bets on the election because of "taste" concerns. [25] The practice is illegal in the United States under the Federal Wire Act of 1961. [26]
Wagering on the Papal conclaves may no longer be considered illegal in the United States. [15] [27] On September 20, 2011, the United States Justice Department reversed its opinion that all forms of internet gambling are in violation of the Federal Wire Act. [27] The ruling states that the prohibition in the Wire Act of using interstate communications for gambling applies only to betting on a "sporting event or contest." [28] Intrastate betting on the papal conclave may now be legal. [29] However, interstate policy has yet to be determined. [29]
Gregory XIV's bull of excommunication as a penalty for such wagers was never specifically rescinded, but was abrogated along with all canon law provisions associated with the Ius Decretalium in 1918. [30]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)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.
The College of Cardinals, more formally called the Sacred College of Cardinals, is the body of all cardinals of the Catholic Church. As of 19 April 2024, there are 237 cardinals, of whom 127 are eligible to vote in a conclave to elect a new pope. Cardinals are appointed by the pope for life. Changes in life expectancy partly account for historical increases in the size of the college.
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 conclavist was a personal aide of a cardinal present in a papal conclave. The term is sometimes used to refer to all present with a conclave, including the cardinal-electors, but is more properly applied only to the non-cardinals. Conclavists played an important historical role in the negotiations of papal elections and in the evolution of secrecy, writing many of the extant accounts of papal elections.
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.
Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson is a Ghanaian prelate and cardinal of the Catholic Church who has served as chancellor of the Pontifical Academies of Sciences since 2022. He was president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace from 2009 to 2017 and the inaugural prefect of the Dicastery for the Promotion of Integral Human Development from 2017 to 2021.
Carlos Amigo Vallejo, O.F.M. was a Spanish prelate of the Catholic Church who served as Archbishop of Seville from 1982 to 2009. He was made a cardinal in 2003. He was archbishop of Tangier in Morocco from 1973 to 1982.
Habemus papam or Papam habemus is the announcement traditionally given by the protodeacon of the College of Cardinals or by the senior cardinal deacon participating in the papal conclave, in Latin, upon the election of a new pope of the Roman Catholic Church.
A cardinal-nephew was a cardinal elevated by a pope who was that cardinal's relative. The practice of creating cardinal-nephews originated in the Middle Ages, and reached its apex during the 16th and 17th centuries. The last cardinal-nephew was named in 1689 and the practice was abolished in 1692. The word nepotism originally referred specifically to this practice, when it appeared in the English language about 1669. From the middle of the Avignon Papacy (1309–1377) until Pope Innocent XII's anti-nepotism bull, Romanum decet pontificem (1692), a pope without a cardinal-nephew was the exception to the rule. Every Renaissance pope who created cardinals appointed a relative to the College of Cardinals, and the nephew was the most common choice, although one of Alexander VI's creations was his own son.
The 1549–50 papal conclave, convened after the death of Pope Paul III and eventually elected Cardinal Giovanni del Monte as Pope Julius III. It was the second-longest papal conclave of the 16th century, and, at the time, the largest papal conclave in history in terms of the number of cardinal electors. The cardinal electors were roughly divided between the factions of Henry II of France, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, and Alessandro Farnese, the cardinal-nephew of Paul III.
The September 1503 papal conclave elected Pope Pius III to succeed Pope Alexander VI. Due to the Italian Wars, the College of Cardinals was surrounded by three potentially hostile armies, loyal to Louis XII of France, Ferdinand II of Aragon, and Cesare Borgia.
The 1521–22 papal conclave elected Pope Adrian VI to succeed Pope Leo X. The conclave was marked by the early candidacies of cardinal-nephew Giulio de'Medici and Alessandro Farnese, although the Colonna and other cardinals blocked their election.
The 1523 papal conclave elected Cardinal Giulio de' Medici as Pope Clement VII to succeed Pope Adrian VI. According to conclave historian Baumgartner, the conclave was the "last conclave of the Renaissance".
The March–April 1605 papal conclave was convened on the death of Pope Clement VIII and ended with the election of Cardinal Alessandro Ottaviano de' Medici as Pope Leo XI. It was the first of two papal conclaves in 1605; Leo died on 27 April 1605, twenty-six days after he was elected. The conclave was dominated by conflict over whether Cesare Baronius should be elected pope, and Philip III of Spain excluded both Baronius and the eventually successful candidate, Medici.
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.
Pope Francis: Conversations with Jorge Bergoglio: His Life in His Own Words is a biography of Jorge Bergoglio, who became Pope Francis in 2013. Written by Sergio Rubin, it is the only biography of him that appeared before his election as Pope. It was initially published in Spanish with the name El Jesuita.
In the course of his papacy, Benedict XVI issued two documents altering certain details of the procedures for electing a pope: De electione romani pontificis on 11 June 2007 and Normas nonnullas on 22 February 2013. These instructions amended the extensive set of rules and procedures issued on 22 February 1996 by his predecessor John Paul II in his apostolic constitution Universi Dominici gregis.
The Two Popes is a 2019 biographical drama film directed by Fernando Meirelles and written by Anthony McCarten, adapted from McCarten's play The Pope which premiered at Royal & Derngate Theatre in 2019. Predominantly set in Vatican City in the aftermath of the Vatican leaks scandal, the film follows Pope Benedict XVI, played by Anthony Hopkins, as he attempts to convince Jorge Mario Cardinal Bergoglio, played by Jonathan Pryce, to reconsider his decision to resign as an archbishop as he confides his own intentions to abdicate the papacy.