With Ancient Rites, Cardinals Make First Attempt to Choose a Pope - New York Times

VATICAN CITY — They filed into the Sistine Chapel on Tuesday reciting a Latin hymn, and then swore an oath on the Bible, pledging secrecy. And then the 115 cardinals were sealed inside to choose from among them the next leader of the Roman Catholic Church. It was a ritual, solemn and ancient, that underscored the continuity of a 2,000-year-old institution. The first ballot on Tuesday night came up with no new pope, an outcome signaled by the black smoke that poured out of a temporary copper chimney on the roof of the Sistine Chapel. But clearly, the modern world was pushing against the fortresslike walls of Vatican City. In a time of sweeping revolutions that have heightened demands for democratic accountability and high-speed communications that have made transparency easier, an urgent question facing the new pope may be how the church remains vital and relevant amid so much change. After the scandal-plagued, eight-year caretaker papacy of Benedict XVI, the new pope will inherit a Catholic world where nearly everyone is demanding some type of change, even as few agree on what that change should be. In the morning, the cardinals celebrated a special Mass led by Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the dean of the College of Cardinals, who gave the last major public statement by a Vatican prelate before the church's next pontiff emerges. It was a call to unity for a church whose Vatican leadership has been riven by scandal, and whose cardinals are wrangling over what kind of pope they want. "St. Paul teaches that each of us must work to build up the unity of the church," the cardinal said in his homily. "All of us are therefore called to cooperate with the pastors, in particular with the successor of Peter, to obtain that unity of the holy church." St. Peter was the first pope. Many cardinals are advocating more specific goals. They want the Vatican hierarchy to work more efficiently to better serve a global church. Liberal Catholics in the United States want changes on clerical celibacy and the ordination of women, even as others do not. In Europe, some seek a greater role in Catholic life for the divorced. In Latin America, there are demands for more vibrant parishes. And in Africa, where the church is growing fastest, the need is for more priests. Yet popes are not like presidents, elected on a legislative record or agenda. Anyone expecting the new pope to enact big changes on social issues is likely to be disappointed, given the doctrinal conservatism of the 115 elector cardinals. Instead, Vatican analysts say, the question is whether the new pope will decide that the best way to strengthen the church is effectively to weaken the Vatican hierarchy and give local bishops more decision-making powers. "It would be foolish to expect some revolution," said the Rev. John O'Malley, a professor of theology at Georgetown University. "The optimistic view is that they seem to be very much aware of how severe the criticism is of the way things have been going. Something has to change. What they'll change I don't know." Already, Vatican experts and others are predicting that the deliberations inside the Sistine Chapel could last longer than those in 2005, in which Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was selected on the second day of the conclave and became Benedict XVI. By early Tuesday evening, black smoke appeared above the Sistine Chapel, signifying that the first vote had been inconclusive and that deliberations would continue Wednesday. In the days before the conclave, several cardinals spoke about the desire among many Catholics for the church to change, cautioning that expectations needed to be tempered. "That becomes the slogan for our presidential campaigns — 'change,' 'progress,' 'on the move,' " Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, the archbishop of New York, said in a recent interview. "That may be legitimate in human logic, but for the church, the very mission statement of the pontificate is to preserve the immutable teaching of the church and to pass it on." Yet cardinals realize that many of the faithful believe the church is in disarray and out of touch. Pope Benedict faced small insurgencies around the Catholic world on issues like celibacy among priests and the ordination of women. Hundreds of priests in the United States, Australia and Austria have expressed support for the ordination of women as priests, or have defended fellow clerics who dared to broach the subject. Under Benedict and his immediate predecessor, John Paul II, the Vatican precluded discussion of women's ordination and punished some religious leaders who raised the issue. An Australian bishop, citing the shortage of priests, wrote a pastoral letter saying he would consider ordaining women and married men, if Rome gave permission. Instead, the bishop was removed from his position. Now, many analysts say the Vatican understands that it needs to address the aspirations of women. This month, Cardinal Leonardo Sandri of Argentina, considered a papal contender, said that women must be given more leadership positions in the Vatican and elsewhere. "The role of women in the world has increased, and this is something the church has to ask itself about," the cardinal was quoted by Reuters as saying. "They must have a much more important role in the life of the church. This will be a challenge for us in the future." In the United States, some theologians say the church could consider ordaining women as deacons, arguing that women served similar roles in the early church. At the same time, the new pope will also be expected to address the long-pending issue of whether the church should allow Catholics who have divorced and remarried without an annulment to receive communion. Vatican experts said there was growing momentum for improvements to the Vatican's administration and leadership. A major issue in this conclave is how, or whether, to rein in the Roman Curia, which runs the Vatican and has accumulated huge power in dictating policy. During Benedict's papacy, a series of communications problems erupted into a crisis of governance last year when the pope's butler was convicted of stealing confidential documents from the papal apartment. Whereas in earlier crises during the papacy many in the Vatican hierarchy dismissed criticism as perfidious outside attacks, after the leaks they more openly acknowledged that the lumbering bureaucracy needed improving. Some suggest that high-ranking Vatican officials should discuss things more frequently with the pope, rather than tending their own fiefs. "I'd like to see more of a sense of cabinet government, where you'd have a regular formal coming together, and in that creating a sense of discussion and debate," said a Vatican official speaking under traditional anonymity. "But people say that's a very 'Anglo-Saxon' approach," the official added, using a term that Italians do not always mean as a compliment. The modernizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council, also called Vatican II, in the mid-1960s — including greater roles for laypeople, changes to the liturgy and stronger ties with other faiths — came about because Pope John XXIII opened the door for church leaders to have a genuine dialogue about the church. That kind of open-ended, two-way dialogue has not been repeated, scholars say. "The hard core want to defend, as much as possible, the role of the Curia and the papacy as the strong center of the Catholic Church," said Marco Politi, an Italian journalist, author and Vatican expert. "They fear the Protestantism of the church. They don't want the Catholic Church to become a federation of churches." But decentralizing power represents potentially the most significant issue a new pope could address. Changing the governance structure of the global church could dilute the power of the Curia and delegate greater power to bishops in making decisions about their own dioceses, analysts say. Interviews this week outside St. Peter's Basilica underscored the variety of different hopes and expectations that people have for the new pope. Some people supported women's ordination. Others called for a pope from Latin America or Africa. "It was clear that Ratzinger was a transitional pope," said Christa Astor, 64, who was visiting the Vatican with her husband, Hermann, from Heidelberg, Germany. "Now we want someone who is younger and more ready for change." Reporting was contributed by Daniel J. Wakin, Laurie Goodstein, Michael Paulson and Gaia Pianigiani. via Top Stories - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNFUJZ-hxIS_AGDZcv3uz2GmZvTk7Q&url=http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/13/world/europe/with-ancient-rites-cardinals-make-first-attempt-to-choose-a-pope.html?pagewanted=all

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