ONE OF the fastest conclaves in recent history this week resulted in the election as Pope of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the German theologian who has been the Vatican?s doctrinal enforcer for the past 23 years. He has taken the name Pope Benedict XVI.

The election of the new Pope came on Tuesday afternoon in what appeared to be only the fourth ballot. The cardinals had been locked into the Sistine Chapel ?- shuttling to the nearby Domus Sanctae Marthae only to sleep and eat ?- for just over 24 hours when the white smoke billowed from the Chapel?s roof and the bells of St Peter?s Basilica pealed to indicate that a new Pope had been chosen.

Tens of thousands of people waited excitedly in St Peter?s Square for his identity to be revealed. The senior cardinal deacon ?- Cardinal Jorge Medina Estevez ?- stepped out on the drapery-festooned central balcony of the basilica and made the announcement ?Habemus Papam!? The crowd roared with delight. Then he announced the name ?Josephum? Cardinalem Ratzinger? qui sibi nomen imposuit Benedictus.? The crowd continued to cheer as the new Pope was finally brought out on to the balcony to give his first Urbi et Orbi blessing to the city and the world. Like his predecessor ? John Paul II ? Benedict XVI spoke briefly to the large crowd in Italian, asking the faithful to assist him with their prayers.

The early evening appearance of the first newly elected Pope of the twenty-first century brought to conclusion the 17-day ?interregnum? when the See of Rome remained vacant. The period was marked by nine days of mourning for the late John Paul II and preparations for the secret vote to elect his successor.

Monday morning?s pre-conclave Mass ? Pro Eligendo Papa ? and the afternoon?s ritualised ceremony that ushered the 115 ?princes of the Church? into the fifteenth- century Chapel at the Vatican palace were both broadcast live around the world. The cardinals gathered at 4.30 p.m. in the Hall of Blessing above the porch of St Peter?s Basilica and processed through the Sala Reggia and into the Sistine Chapel. A choir sang the Litany of the Saints as a cross-bearer flanked by two candle-bearers led the solemn procession in through the massive wooden chapel doors. The cardinals filed in two by two past the Chapel?s two stoves on their left ? used for burning the tallied ballots ? and a pipe-organ on the right. They walked up a ramp and past the grate and took places at 12 tables, placed in two rows of three on either side of the room. Before the altar stood a table with a large chalice where each cardinal deposited his vote, as Michelangelo?s image of the Last Judgement loomed over them.

Church officials took extra precautions against electronic bugging and cell phone contact by installing blocking devices below the raised floor of the Chapel. Once the cardinals took the oath of secrecy the papal liturgist ?- Archbishop Piero Marini ?- asked all but the voting members to leave the Chapel by announcing ?Extra omnes!? Before proceeding to the first vote of the historic election Cardinal Tom?s Spid?k offered the voters prepared reflections on the importance of the act they were about to perform.

Crowds waited expectantly in St Peter?s Square, and on Monday evening the first wisps of smoke since 1978 billowed out of the Sistine Chapel chimney. After initially appearing to be white, the smoke turned increasingly darker and eventually billowed out in thick black clouds that could not be mistaken. Just before noon on Tuesday another dark grey cloud of smoke slowly puffed out of the chimney. The crowds formed again in the evening, and as with the previous two instances of smoke appearing, people staring at the chimney were at first confused as to whether it was white or black. After about 10 minutes of smoke wafting out, though, at around 6 p.m. local time, the bells of the basilica began to ring, announcing along with the famous fumata bianca that the world had a new leader of the Catholic Church.
Robert Mickens, Rome

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