What live event always generates the greatest emotion?
The seventh world series game? The World Cup? The Oscar awards? A presidential election in the United States?
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And the Super Bowl? Chatgpt uses words as “epic”, “iconic” and “incredibly dramatic” to describe the annual NFL championship.
But a Super Bowl lasts more than four hours, only has two possible winners often is not so competitive.
“Papal elections are much more dramatic,” says John Dempsey, history professor at Westfield State University at Massachusetts (United States) and author of Bonizo of Sutri: Portrait in a Landscape (Sutri Bonizo: Portrait in a landscape), A 2023 book on an Italian bishop of the 11th century that suffered for its attempts to reform the Church.
Undoubtedly, the announcement of a new Pope is a carefully prepared scene, with a formula for staging and script. However, peculiarities and rhythm help build tension.
The white smoke rises timidly by the chimney of the Sistine Chapel, gains confidence and begins to come out in abundance. The bells sound.
A large break.
Then the curtains run. The windows open. A processional crucifix appears, followed by a usually experienced appearance cardinal, who reads aloud Latin words of a paper.
The moment is full of mystery: nobody outside the enclosure knows when it will happen or who will be chosen among so many possibilities. And the crowd, which does not follow any script, plays its role spontaneously, cheering every part of the announcement of 22 words.
The Jesuit priest Thomas Worcester, professor of History at Fordham University, was a 22 -year -old newly graduated young man who was traveling through Europe when he went to Rome for the August 1978 conclave who chose Juan Pablo I.
“I have said many times over the years – and it has been a long time since 1978 – that the most exciting thing I have done was to be in the Plaza de San Pedro when the white smoke came out,” said Fr. Worcester to the National Catholic Register by phone.
The environment helps build emotion, he explained.
He described the Plaza de San Pedro, an oval square framed by the semicircular colonnade of Gian Lorenzo Bernini of the seventeenth century, as “a huge theatrical space” ideal for the occasion.
“It’s an impressive outdoor theater,” said Fr. Worcester. “It is where the Church shows itself, in the best sense, in a very, very positive sense.”
The announcement tests the knowledge of the Latin listeners, both in pronunciation and grammar. The first clue about the identity of the new Pope is his first name, which appears in an accusative case, since it is the second object of the verb in the famous phrase Karol! (“We have Pope!”).
Mons. Roger Landry, National Director of Pontifical Mission Works in the United States, told the Register that he was in a retirement with priests in April 2005 when he saw the announcement of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as Benedict XVI.
“As soon as the name ‘Josephum’ pronounced, we all knew that it was Ratzinger and the scene of adult men with cassock was jumping with joy,” Landry said by email from Rome.
“This year I am very excited to be part of the Ewtn team that will make live coverage from the Vatican, because I will have a role in the live historical announcement,” added Landry, a frequent collaborator of EWTN and the Register. “And I already have Latin names in accusative.”
Translated and adapted by the ACI Press team. Originally published in the National Catholic Register.
Matthew McDonald
Matt McDonald is the journalist of the Catholic National Catholic and publisher of the New Boston Post.