Passing the Keys. Modern Cardinals, Conclaves, and the Election of the Next Pope (review)

Passing the Keys. Modern Cardinals, Conclaves, and the Election of the Next Pope. By Francis A. Burkle-Young. (Lanham, Maryland: Madison Books. 1999. Pp. xxxi, 522. $35.00.)

An unusual book. The introduction provides the mise-en-scène for what is to follow: a succinct account of papal elections from the early Middle Ages down to present times. It explains why, for almost the past thousand years, the election of the popes has been restricted by canon law exclusively to the choice of the cardinals.

Such was the gravity of the crises that the papacy has had to ride out in the past, that on more than one occasion many doubted they would ever see another conclave, in 1799, for instance, after the death of Pius VI at Valence, in exile, hostage of the French Revolution, after the loss of the Papal State and the occupation of Rome, in 1870, and the death of Pius IX eight years later. And yet the succession continues unbroken, the keys of the kingdom have been passed securely from hand to hand. How?

In six increasingly detailed and informative chapters the author narrates the conclaves of the past century, from 1878 until 1978. A long succession of popes and pontificates: Leo XIII (Gioacchino Pecci), in 1878; Pius X (Giuseppe Sarto), in 1903, Benedict XV (Giacomo Della Chiesa), in 1914; Pius XI (Achille Ratti), in 1922; Pius XII (Eugenio Pacelli), in 1939; John XXIII (Angelo Roncalli), in 1958; Paul VI (Giovanni Battista Montini), in 1963; John Paul I (Albino Luciani) and John Paul II (Karol Wojtyla), both in 1978. For each conclave, a roll call is made of the cardinal electors and why they were ever aggregated into the Sacred College. Possible papabili are considered, sometimes immediately dismissed. An attempt is made to reconstruct the shifting phases of the balloting, down to the decisive count. All very interesting.

Given the stringency of the norms binding the cardinal electors to absolute secrecy on what takes place during the conclave and the fact that the author declines to reveal his sources (p. ix), the work presumably depends on earlier published accounts based on able conjecture and surmise. Regarding more recent events, Andrew Greeley and Peter Hebblethwaite seem likely sources (p. 505), and John Cornwell is explicitly acknowledged (p. 261). One episode is lifted from Pontiff (p. 265), though this great work of fiction is not listed in the bibliography. No better than that, or is there something really fresh? Who can tell?

These are followed by two chapters on the cardinals created since 1979, until the most recent consistory of 1998, a total of 155 porporati, the twenty-year span being divided into the earlier years of this pontificate, and the later years. This is not an exercise in adulation, and in assessing them, criticism is not spared. Not all come out with flying colors. Not everyone, however, will agree with the assessment.

The final chapter is devoted to the coming election, whenever that may be, though the author makes no secret (p. 401) of the fact that he thinks it will take place in 1999! With every day of 2000 that passes, his book becomes less relevant. This is inevitable in a work of this sort. Nine cardinals have died since it went to the presses. Hume, Padiyara, Sladkevicius would still have been electors today, whereas superannuated colleagues, such as O'Connor or Zoungrana, might have tried, in the discussions prior to the conclave, to influence the choice of a successor to the reigning pope. Another three have attained their eightieth birthday, viz., Pimenta, Sanchez, Sfeir, and are now debarred from the next conclave. Likewise Hickey and Araujo Sales before the close of the year.

He speculates on the current favored contenders for the apostolic succession (including not one single native English speaker), and on the major ecclesial issues facing the...