Papal inauguration

Papal inauguration is a liturgical service of the Catholic Church within Mass celebrated in the Roman Rite but with elements of Byzantine Rite for the ecclesiastical investiture of a pope. Since the inauguration of Pope John Paul I, it has not included the 820-year-old (1143–1963) papal coronation ceremony.

It was in the 11th century that the inauguration took the form of a coronation.^[1] Along with other ceremonies used at papal inaugurations,^[2][3] a coronation became part of a pope's inauguration ritual from the time of Pope Nicholas II (1059–1061)^[4] until 1963. Pope Paul VI, the last pope to be crowned or to use a papal tiara, abandoned the use of his tiara in a ceremony at the end of the second period of the Second Vatican Council.

Over twenty tiaras are held in the Vatican. That of Paul VI is in the crypt of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.

A small one is still used to symbolically crown a statue of Saint Peter on his saint's day every year. The first pope for over eight centuries to inaugurate his pontificate without a coronation was Pope John Paul I.

Abandonment of the coronation

Pope Paul VI, the last pope to be crowned or to use a papal tiara, abandoned the use of his tiara in a ceremony at the end of the second period of the Second Vatican Council, and announced that it would be sold and the money obtained would be given to charity; it was in fact bought by Catholics in the United States and is now kept in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.^[5]

Though Paul VI decided not to wear a tiara, his 1975

His successor,

In his 1996 apostolic constitution

Modern inauguration

Four modern popes have now used an inauguration ceremony without coronation: Pope John Paul I, Pope John Paul II, (both in 1978), Pope Benedict XVI (2005) and Pope Francis (2013).

The modern papal inauguration, developed from the form used for John Paul I, takes place during

Pope Benedict XVI maintained those changes and also shortened, as explained below, the ceremony of homage previously paid at a papal inauguration by each cardinal individually, repeating the "act of homage and obedience" made in the conclave to the new pope before the announcement of his election to the people.[6]

The ceremony does not include the alleged Papal Oath that some

]

Inauguration of Benedict XVI

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Receiving the pallium and the Ring of the Fisherman

The pope received the pallium and the Ring of the Fisherman. Cardinal Jorge Medina, the cardinal protodeacon, formally bestowed the pallium on the pope.^[7] The pallium used was different from that of previous popes: it was an earlier form practically identical to the ancient omophorion (still used to this day by Eastern bishops); wider than the standard archiepiscopal pallium, though not as wide as the modern omophorion; 2.4 metres (2.6 yards) long, made of wool with black silk tips. It had five embroidered red silk crosses instead of the six black ones of the normal archbishops' pallium. Pope Benedict later in his pontificate would use a pallium similar to that of his immediate predecessors, but with a longer, wider cut and six red crosses.

After the pallium was bestowed and before the Ring of the Fisherman was presented, Cardinal Stephen Kim Sou-hwan, as the senior cardinal-priest, pronounced the formal prayer for the new pope.^[7]

Cardinal Angelo Sodano, as the senior cardinal-bishop, formally presented the Ring of the Fisherman to the pope.^[7]

Act of homage

Instead of having each of the more than one hundred

Pope Francis celebrated his papal inauguration on 19 March 2013, the

Francis first descended to the tomb of St. Peter in St. Peter's Basilica where, along with the patriarchs and major-archbishops of the Eastern Catholic Churches, he prayed at the tomb.^[10] Then the pallium and the Ring of the Fisherman were carried up from the tomb by two deacons to be borne in procession.^[10] Then the pope and the Eastern Catholic patriarchs and major-archbishops returned to the main floor of the basilica and processed along with the other cardinals, bishops and other clergy to the square chanting the Laudes Regiae.^[10]

Cardinal

Ad hoc rituals were used for the inaugurations of the pontificates of Popes John Paul I and John Paul II. On 20 April 2005, Pope Benedict XVI approved a permanent rite, a draft of which had been made by the Office of Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff under John Paul II. This was published as an official liturgical book of the Church with the name Ordo Rituum pro Ministerii Petrini Initio Romae Episcopi (Order of the Rites for the Inauguration of the Petrine Ministry of the Bishop of Rome). Archbishop Piero Marini, the Papal Master of Ceremonies, described it as part of the application to papal rites of the liturgical reforms that followed the Second Vatican Council.

The Ordo contains not only the rite of the Mass of the Inauguration, but also that of the Mass of the Enthronement on the cathedra romana, the chair of the Bishop of Rome, in the Lateran Basilica, Rome's cathedral and the Catholic Church's primary basilica, outranking even the St. Peter's Basilica. Popes usually take possession of the Lateran Basilica within a few days of the inauguration of the pontificate.

Shortly before he resigned, Pope Benedict XVI introduced some modifications: strictly non-sacramental ceremonies take place not within Mass but either before Mass or without Mass; the individual act of homage by each cardinal is restored; a wider choice of music is provided; and the time for taking possession of the basilicas of Saint Paul Outside the Walls and Saint Mary Major is not limited to the two or three weeks following the inauguration.^[15][16]

List of papal inaugurations since 1978

See also

• Papal coronation

Notes

References