Cardinal Piffl (Vienna)
kept private records during the papal conclave that elected
Achille Ratti
as Pius XI. These were discovered after Piffl's
death in 1932, and published in The Tablet on 5 Oct. 1963, at 1060. They are also available in
J.
Noonan, Power to Dissolve
(1972), at 407.
According to Piffl, 15 candidates received
at least one vote in the course of 14 ballots held during the
four-day conclave.
Below, candidates names (canon lawyers in bold) are listed by greatest number of votes
attained in one or more ballots:
Ratti 42
Gasparri 24
La Fontaine 23
Merry de Val 17
Maffi 10
Belmonte 8
Laurenti 5
Bisleti 4
Van Rossum 4
De Lai 2
Pompilj 2
Giorgi 1
Lega 1
Mercier 1
Sbaretti 1
These records suggest what
I think might well be called "The
Canonists' Conclave of 1922." PS: Retaining personal notes such
as Piffl did is now forbidden by papal law (UDG 71).
Of related interest:
The Men behind the Man behind the 1917 Code.
The
Next Papal
Conclave: Current Eligible Electors
by
Dr. Edward N. Peters
The election of
the Roman Pontiff has been reserved to the College of Cardinals since
late in the 13th century. Under current ecclesiastical law (John Paul
II, ap. con.
Universi Dominici gregis,
22 February 1996) all those, but only those, cardinals
under the age of 80 are eligible to vote, except that cardinals whose
names remained reserved by the pope "in pectore"
(currently none) would be ineligible
(UDG 33, 36). There are presently
125 cardinals, some of them
retired (emeritus) from their last posts, eligible to vote in
the next papal conclave (a papally
self-imposed limit of 120 is occasionally exceeded). Voting is secret
and politicking is prohibited (UDG 79-83), but the following "blocs"
are noteworthy: approximately 35 Europeans (outside Italy);
30 Italians; 22 Latin
Americans; 12 Americans (plus at least
5 more from heavily Anglo-cultures);
and 7 Emergent Africans.
Read
More About Papal Election Law:
Rev. John Foster, "The election of the Roman Pontiff: an examination of
Canon 332, § 1 and recent special legislation", The Jurist
56: 691-705 (1997).
At one point during the post-Conciliar process of reforming canon law, a great "Plenaria"
was held in Rome to discuss various difficult legal issues. One such
controversy concerned a
rule established by Pope Paul VI whereby cardinals, upon reaching age
80, lost the right to vote in papal conclaves. The discussion
of this point is recorded in
Congregatio Plenaria diebus 20-29 octobris 1981 habita (pp.
374-375). Cardinal Pericles Felici, a very influential Roman
canonist, chaired the meeting.
What follows is my very free translation from the Latin of an
exchange during that meeting:
Cdl. Felici
* * *
OFFICIAL:
Question Four, octogenarian cardinals lose the right to elect the
Roman Pontiff. There are eleven Fathers asking for discussion of this point [all
names are listed, led by Cdl. Seper's].
FELICI: We move
next to Question Four, which refers to draft canon 290, whereby
octogenarian cardinals lose the right to vote for the Supreme Pontiff.
Now, before this question is discussed and the one who first brought it
up explains his reasons,
it is my duty to tell you that I have already spoken about this matter
with the pope while going over various topics to
be looked at in this session, and I asked him whether he thought it was
a good idea to include this question among the six to be reviewed. And the Supreme
Pontiff told me he was not pleased. True, he did not revoke permission
to discuss the topic, but he would prefer that it not be included
among the topics, basically because this issue concerns the Supreme
Pontiff, but for all that, he did not forbid debate if the Fathers still
want to talk about it. That said, it's time for someone who has asked for this discussion to
explain his reasons. ............. Anyone? ............. Come on, there
are eleven signatures on this sheet! ............. Card. Seper.
SEPER: I may say, there doesn't seem to be much
point in discussing this now. [Seper
briefly explained that he
was not opposed to the rule itself, but that he wanted it treated outside of the new
Code.]
FELICI: Okay, is there anyone else who
wants to say something on this? ............ Nobody? .......... Well, let's
vote.
OFFICIAL: How many are
left to vote on Question Four?
FELICI: Not many.
Most
of them have
left to attend an audience with the Pope. Fine.
* * *
Postscript: By special secret
ballot, 41 of the 53 cardinals who stayed for the vote asked that the
disqualification not be included in the 1983 Code, and in fact the rule
does not appear in the new Code. But it is still contained in the
special law governing papal elections, and thus is still in force. Anyway, I thought the little exchange above
was funny. Maybe one had to be there.
