Romano Pontifici Eligendo
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Romano Pontifici Eligendo was the Apostolic Constitution governing the election of popes that was promulgated by Pope Paul VI in 1975. It instituted a number of far-reaching reforms in the process of electing popes.
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[edit] Ban on cardinals over eighty voting
Its most dramatic reform was to give formal structure to Paul's already announced decision to prohibit cardinals over the age of eighty from participating and voting in the election of popes. The reasoning behind this is that Conclaves have a tendency to be strenuous and stressful; up until 1996, the Cardinals were locked into the Apostolic Palace, forced to live in temporary makeshift rooms, sharing a few common restrooms. At times, some Cardinals were too ill to even go to the Sistine Chapel. Paul VI's decision was to dispense the most elderly Cardinals from their Cardinantial obligations.
John Paul II kept this regulation in Universi Dominici Gregis.
[edit] Restrictions on conduct of the conclave
It also imposed extremely strict regulations on the conduct of papal conclaves, including the requirement that the windows of the Sistine chapel be boarded up during a conclave. Many cardinals complained that the restrictions were excessive during the two conclaves of 1978 and they were subsequently abolished by Pope John Paul II in his 1996 Apostolic Constitution Universi Dominici Gregis.
[edit] Requirement that successor be crowned
One other notable feature was that, while Pope Paul himself had abandoned the wearing of his Papal Tiara, he explicitly required that his successor must be crowned in a Papal Coronation. However, Popes John Paul I and John Paul II opted not to obey this rule with the latter in his homily at his Papal Inauguration suggesting erronously that Paul's constitution had left it free for future popes to decide whether or not to be crowned or at least decided to change the rule himself.
John Paul ultimately changed this requirement in his own 1996 Apostolic Constitution, leaving it free to each successor to decide on his method of inauguration.
[edit] See also
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Romano Pontifici Eligendo (1975), No. 92.
- ^ Papal Inauguration Homily of Pope John Paul II, L'Osservatore Romano (Text of the Homily)
