Papal Bull*

The first day of the Papal election season has finished without a result.

The black smoke emerged from the oven at the Sistine Chapel indicating that after a day of stirring ceremony, prayer, consultation and lobbying, no candidate could call a clear majority his own.  And so the amazing and intricate ritual around the 266^th Papal Conclave will proceed for a while longer.  It is anticipated to be several more days whilst the winner and his faction marshal the votes.  Today I will look at the ritual and next time the politics of the Conclave.

What excites me about this Conclave, is the intensity of the pomp and ceremony and how that ritual both inspires believers yet mystifies and even repulses the godless.

For the Catholic believer, the ritual is full of non verbal signals to the every Catholic in the group – the largest religious grouping in the world. The costumes indicate power. The prayer indicates communion with the Almighty. The architecture speaks again of potency, a venerable history and a group capable of making buildings of great beauty. It is a moment when those within the Catholic Communion can happily cease to be rational and take in the symbolism as exciting.  It is an invitation to feel a sense of awe and, indeed, transcendence.  The ritual is literally awesome. 

Nothing embodies the non rational ritual as the smoke signal on the days election results.  Rather than doing something boring and prosaic like making an announcement, putting up a notice or even tweeting, the Conclave chooses something completely abnormal.  This can only enhance the extra-ordinariness of the Conclave. The ballot papers are burned and a chemical added to make the smoke black for a locked vote and white for a new Papacy.  This arcane ritual, so unnecessary, so kinky and so removed from the real world is a fantastic strategy. This rite announces to the world that this decision is so moving that we cannot even communicate with words. We are going to use the ballots, now suffused with holy “stuff” (regardless of their carbon footprint). It is a master stroke.  Usually observers struggle to see the colour of smoke. This ambiguity and suspense adds to the sense of the holy, the enigmatic and unreality of it all. If only the godless could invent rites of equivalent power.

Unfortunately I don’t get the symbols.  They impress me because more than anyone I know, I like a good ball gown, striking hats and a grand parade in sublime surrounds.  But because I am godless their power to persuade passes me by.  Accordingly I see the conclave as a bunch of sexually dysfunctional blokes in startling frocks playing with themselves.  They get to play in some of the best real estate in the world and so the whole conclave reeks of delusional decadence.  The delusion, for this unbeliever, seems to infect both the Cardinals in the Conclave and the millions of minions who are hanging on this decision.   In my more lucid moments, when I can stop fantasizing about wearing my own red frock, the whole thing is utterly insane.  But being objective, I do see how for those within the tent, the whole shindig is one of the great religious moments of the decade.  Grandeur works. Pomp and ceremony inspire.

So, just as the ritual strikes many godless as both an unnecessary expense coupled with self importance, the ritual has the opposite effect on the believers. It transforms a mere election into something other worldly.  The weirder the Conclave becomes the more it obtains authority.  This is something the godless need to appreciate and it is hard for us and we too often turn off our ability to have our brains suborned by theatrical ceremony. It’s a problem for us. But it isn't a problem for the Vatican. Like the British Royals, the Vatican's ceremony is so powerful it is trans-formative and a key to it longevity and resilience. 

What is your view?

Do you find the ceremony inspiring or ridiculous?

Given the abuse scandal, is it tactful to cross dress as the Cardinals almost seem to do?

Can the godless ever hope to have such an involving ceremony?

Can the ceremony be so powerful that it becomes a matter of substance when it is really merely form?

Over to you guys...

*A Papal bull is a particular form of papal document. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papal_bull