Universi Dominici Gregis: Encyclopedia - Universi Dominici Gregis

Universi Dominici Gregis

Universi Dominici Gregis is an Apostolic Constitution of the Roman Catholic Church issued by Pope John Paul II on February 22, 1996. It superseded Pope Paul VI's 1975 Apostolic Constitution, Romano Pontifici Eligendo.

Universi Dominici Gregis ('the Lord's whole flock', from the opening statement 'The Shepherd of the Lord's whole flock is the Bishop of the Church of Rome, ...'), subtitled On the Vacancy of the Apostolic See and the Election of the Roman Pontiff, deals with the vacancy of the Chair of St Peter and Bishop of Rome namely the Pope.

The constitution modified or in some cases confirmed the rules for the conclave such that the rules today are as follows:

Universi Dominici Gregis - Secrecy

Strict secrecy is to be ensured throughout the process. Anyone violating the security of the Vatican, introducing recording equipment, or communicating with a cardinal elector in any way, risks excommunication. Other penalties are at the discretion of the incoming Pope. Various oaths are also required to be taken by the participants, to ensure that they will act properly.

Universi Dominici Gregis - Previous methods of election

Previously, other methods were allowed for the conduct of the election. A committee of some of the cardinals might have been delegated, to make the choice for all (election by compromise, per compromissum). Alternatively, formal ballots could be discarded: in election by acclamation (per acclamationem seu inspirationem) the electors simultaneously shout out the name of their preferred candidate. Both of these methods have now been abolished: the rationale is that they tended to produce controversy, and in any case had not been used for some time (the last compromise election was of Pope John XXII in 1316, and the last affirmation (acclamation) election was of Pope Gregory XV in 1621).

Universi Dominici Gregis - Living quarters of cardinals

Also Universi Dominici Gregis provided that Cardinals would be housed in Domus Sanctae Marthae, a building with dormitory type accommodations built within the Vatican City. Previously Cardinals were housed in improvised accommodations which were often not noted for being particularly comfortable.

Universi Dominici Gregis - Major changes

Three major changes occurred in the new Apostolic Constitution.

• Provision was provided for the election of a pope by an absolute majority in certain circumstances.

• For the first time in centuries cardinals were to be provided with an official set of apartments separate from the Sistine Chapel.

• The method by which a pope symbolically took office was made less specific. Whereas Pope Paul's Romano Pontifici Eligendo explicitly required that the new pope be crowned, the new Apostolic Constitution wrote more ambiguously of the inauguration of the pontificate without spelling out specifically by name whether than inaugurating (ie, formal ceremonial beginning of) the pontificate involves either the old enthronement ceremony, the Papal Coronation or the version used since 1978, the Papal Inauguration. All that is required is that some formal ceremony take place. What form that takes is left up to the discretion of the incoming pope.

Universi Dominici Gregis - 2005 papal conclave

The Papal election of 2005 was the first papal election to be held under this system. If Pope Benedict XVI follows the custom of his predecessors in writing a new election constitution, it will also be the last.

Universi Dominici Gregis - External link

• Universi Dominici Gregis

Category: Election of the Pope

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Universi Dominici Gregis", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki