Upon the Death of a Pontiff

Obviously, I don't want to jinx things; but then, I also don't believe in jinxes. In any case, this is pretty topical.

Riehl World has put together a digest of the rites and procedures following the death of a Pope.

And... Video of the Vatican press conference on the Pope's deteriorting health.

More... Andrew sent me a link about these rituals and procedures last night, and I was just composing a post about them before Riehl World went first-to-market.

But Andrew highlighted a couple of cool details I didn't see in Riehl World's post. From his link:

Immediately on the death of a pope the cardinal camerlengo who, as representative of the Sacred College, assumes charge of the papal household, verifies by a judicial act the death of the pontiff. In the presence of the household he strikes the forehead of the dead pope three times with a silver mallet, calling him by his baptismal name.

Andrew digests the next steps in his own words:

After that, they take his Fisherman's ring, which is I guess a seal of office, and smash it. At that moment, control of the Catholic church goes to the Conclave of Cardinals, who have to get together and choose a new Pope.

The mallet thing is done in front of lots of people- High dignitary types. Obviously this is to avoid any sort of funny business. They want to be sure the man has left this world and isn't being railroaded.

Definitely interesting stuff. Unfortunately, of course, we'll soon be seeing this on cable news.

posted by Ace at 12:13 PM

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