In 1978, we were living in Rome. I was the deputy to the British Ambassador to the Italian Republic, and for most of the summer, the British Charge d’Affaires. The Holy See has, of course, separate diplomats accredited to it, but, on great occasions, it recognized our social, though not our political, status. After all, I was an Eccellenza and lived in a sixteenth-century palazzo. I tell you all this only to explain how it was that I had a ringside seat at the events in S Peter’s Piazza.
I do not recall much about the death and funeral of Paul VI. It was all the same as it had been for centuries, the in your face display of wealth and power, with rather Egyptian-looking ostrich feather fans, like an expensive production of Aida, long lines of Cardinals kissing the altar in turn, and an interminable litany of saints, most of whom, you suddenly realized, had been martyred in this city whose Bishop we were burying. This personal relationship between the Pope and his city became clearer with the passionate intensity of the gossip about who might be the next Pope, that is, which of the Italian Cardinals it would be, since no other nationality had been chosen for 450 years.
In the event it was the Patriarch of Venice. Nothing special there. But Albino Luciani turned out special. His first words to the people made them laugh! He ensured that his enthronement involved no throne. He abolished the papal tiara, the ostrich-feather fans, the sedia gestatoria, a kind of open sedan chair, in which his predecessors, too grand to walk, had been carried about by stout porters. He preached a sermon, most unexpected of all, on God as a mother as well as a father. After Paul VI’s severe opposition to birth control, it was clear that the Cardinals had chosen John Paul I as a modernizer.
In a month we were at his funeral, which after his reforms was much less ostentatious than his predecessor’s and much sadder for those who had hoped he would be able in revivify the church. At these two funerals the Queen was discreetly represented by the Duke of Norfolk, himself a Roman Catholic, sufficiently grand to satisfy the Curia, too boring to worry the Protestants. I do not remember which of them was attended by the Bishop of Winchester on behalf of the Church of England. I do remember that he brought his wife, which was hardly considerate of Roman misogyny, and that after a dinner we all went to it turned out that they had forgotten to bring the key to where they were staying. So they stayed the night with us. You will not be surprised to hear that I was proud to get out some purple pyjamas for His Lordship.
There was more speculation than usual about the election of the next Pope. My mind was made up; I wanted the Cardinal-Archbishop of Palermo, youngish, not likely to collapse like John Paul I, intelligent, progressive, and above all, having been very nice to me. We were at a drinks party in the Doria Palace for visiting Anglican dignitaries when news of the white smoke came through on the radio. “Habemus Papam, Carolem, Sanctae Ecclesiae Cardinalem etc etc Woytila. ” Everybody said “What did he say?’ I had been studying the form; I told them it was the Archbishop of Krakow. We were all flabbergasted. As a student of politics, I could see at once that this was going to affect Polish nationalism and the situation in Eastern Europe; it was going to alter the international stance of the Roman Church. In destroying a centuries-old Italian monopoly of the Papacy it was going to take it into unknown waters. Cardinal Hume subsequently told me that the speed with which the crucial vote had been reached was a clear sign of the intervention of the Holy Spirit. I have asked myself many times since then, as John Paul II courted the popular enthusiasm for celebrity, much like Princess Diana, not least in death, whether Cardinal Hume had continued in the same opinion. There can be little doubt that the Polish Pope had a substantial influence on the downfall of Communism. But equally, the Roman Church has suffered a great deal from scandal and loss of membership in the West under his refusal to acknowledge cultural change and reluctance to acknowledge priestly criminality; he had contributed to much suffering in Africa by his refusal to condone the use of condoms to reduce the spread of AIDS. But his funeral was attended by the Prince of Wales and the Archbishop of Canterbury, and I did not hear a squeak from Dr. Paisley.
We must all wish Benedict XVI and his flock well. He will be scrutinized with care, indeed, he begins with a heavy load of mistrust from those, like me, who do not sympathize with his aggressively conservative attitudes We shall see. John Paul II certainly “fixed” the election of his successor. Will a 78-year old Pope have enough time to follow his example?