Hundreds of millions of people worldwide will watch in the coming days and weeks as the Catholic Church marks the death, celebrates the life, and prays for the repose of the soul of Pope Francis, and then prepares to elect his successor.
To help viewers better understand these events, Susan Timoney, STD, associate professor of practice and associate dean for graduate ministerial studies at The Catholic University of America’s School of Theology and Religious Studies, provides insight to the meaning and purpose behind some of the rituals that the Church uses during papal transitions.
The announcements of the pope’s death are sequenced to reflect his role as a pastor first.
In addition to being a successor to St. Peter and a shepherd of the universal Church, a pope is also Bishop to the Church in Rome and leads that diocese as other bishops lead the dioceses to which they are appointed. Because Pope Francis very much thought of himself as a pastor first, he recently updated some of the liturgies surrounding the death of a pope so they would reflect that priority. One of the ways in which we see this emphasis is in the announcement of the death of a pope.
When the camerlengo (chamberlain) announces the death of a pope, he shares the news first with senior Vatican officials and the Church of Rome for whom the pope was bishop. He subsequently announces the news to the College of Cardinals, and then to the world at large.
“This helps us to see the really personal touch to which these traditions unfold,” Timoney remarks. “The reason for the circles of announcement is that it puts the meaning of the office in context. Yes, the Church is hierarchical, but the beauty is that this attaches the pope as a shepherd to the people of the Church of Rome, so they should have that pride of place of being told first. Then to all the people of God.”
At its core, the funeral liturgy for a pope is the same as that for every baptized Catholic.
Part of the tradition of confirming the death of a pope is the calling of his name. When the camerlengo calls out to the pope, he calls the pope by his baptismal name, not his papal name. This practice is a nod to the belief that as a person’s life in the Lord begins at baptism with the name his family gives him, he is also claimed by the Lord at death with the same name.
Similarly, the Church’s funeral ritual is determined by the Catholic understanding of the meaning of death, which proclaims that life is changed by death, not ended by it. The funeral liturgy, therefore, celebrates that passage of the person from death to eternal life.
“In that sense,” Timoney explains, “the pope as a disciple of Christ is no different than any other disciple, having received the sacraments of initiation in the Church—baptism, confirmation, and the Eucharist—and having lived out his life fully and actively participating in the life of the Church. So that funeral ritual grows out of this understanding of this passage from life here on earth to eternal life. Much as the way we celebrate Mass is the same no matter what part of the world we may be celebrating in, the funeral liturgy at its core is the same for every person.”
The papal funeral is designed to respond to the human need for beauty and ritual.
When discussing the spectacular elements of a papal funeral Mass, Timoney reflects on an article she read several years back that noted the relatively new tradition that had begun with people placing crosses or stuffed animals at the spots where other people had been killed, in order to create memorials to them. The author believed that those makeshift memorials began to crop up because people who are no longer part of a faith community have lost a sense of ritual but need to find a way to remember the person who has died.
The papal Mass—with its liturgical robes, incense, music, and the backdrop of St. Peter’s Basilica—manifests a beauty that attracts people to hear its message of hope.
“The Church has always recognized that ritual has a beauty to it,” Timoney notes. “The Lord gave us the gift of our senses to be able to apprehend God’s presence and grace, and beauty in itself is a reflection of the Creator, so why wouldn’t we want the liturgy to be beautiful in every way the senses can apprehend it?”
The atmosphere of the conclave is more like a retreat than a political convention.
As the members of the College of Cardinals gather at the convening of the conclave to elect the next pope, they discuss the needs of the church, the legacy of the recently deceased pope, and any work that might be left undone. They also think about candidates who have the skills to address some of these priorities.
Timoney says that while the cardinals do spend time in conversation with each other, we on the outside need to be careful not to reduce the conclave discussions to “the politics of the day.” Referring to inaccurate portrayals of conclaves, such as the recent movie Conclave, she argues that our current culture is quick to want to divide people up into liberal and conservative factions, which is too narrow a scope for thinking about a church that is universal and whose mission is to preach the Good News and help people encounter the living Christ.
“We believe the Holy Spirit is at work, that is to say, God is present in the conversations. So my guess is that these men feel the weight of really having to pray and to discern what the Lord may be asking of his Church at this time,” Timoney adds. “I think it’s a much more prayerful environment. I think many of them spend much more time in silence and in prayer in preparation for this decision than out campaigning for their candidate.”
Habemus Papam! We have a pope—we all have a pope.
Timoney believes that papal funerals and conclaves receive the attention they do, in part, because other faith traditions recognize the beauty of the Catholic Church and appreciate the tradition of having someone who can speak in the name of God. She says that other faith traditions recognize the importance of that and the responsibility the Church feels for never tiring of presenting truth to the world.
A key example is the papal blessing delivered from the papal balcony when the new pope is presented to the world. The blessing is meant not just for Rome, but for the world, and not just for Catholics, but for all.
“It’s not just great TV, but there really is a sense that this office serves the whole world,” Timoney says. “The Church has always seen itself as facing the world and wanting to engage with the world, so it would seek to include people even if it weren’t such a great drama in a very secular sense.”
