"I will observe absolute and perpetual secrecy": The Historical Background of the Rigid Secrecy Found in Papal Elections
2003; The Catholic University of America Press; Volume: 89; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/cat.2003.0097
ISSN1534-0708
Autores Tópico(s)Theology and Canon Law Studies
ResumoThe title of this address is taken from the oath that cardinals participating in the next papal election will swear repeatedly in the course of a conclave. The oath is found in Pope John Paul II's Apostolic Constitution on papal elections published in 1996.1 It is an oath that all others—secretaries, physicians, confessors, and housekeepers—who are present within the precincts of the conclave also swear under pain of excommunication. If I were to provide all of the text in that Constitution on the obligation of maintaining secrecy and how it is to be done, there would be little time to discuss the topic of this address—the historicalbackground of that secrecy. One irony of studying the history of papal elections is that there is a great deal more firsthand source material for the conclave of 1549-50, for example, than for the most recent ones.
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