The coronation of a Pope

The big thing about the coronation of a Pope is that today there is no longer any coronation. And there is profound symbolism in that fact.

For more than a thousand years since the Middle Ages, Popes were crowned, and their coronation was a very elaborate ceremony. From the Papal residence where the newly elected Pope was residing at the time, he was carried in procession to the church where the coronation was to take place - the Leteran Basilica, later St. Peter’s. When I say, "carried", I mean literally - for the Pope, seated on a portable throne (the sedia gestatoria), was carried on men’s shoulders and flanking the throne were two men carrying two enormous fans to fan the Pope (like the Oriental monarchs). In the basilica, amid solemn ceremonies, he was crowned with the triple tiara, signifying his triple sovereignty: he was Bishop of Rome, Patriarch of the Western Church, and monarch of the Papal States. Then, amid the pealing of the bells of all the churches in Rome, he was again carried in triumphal procession back to his residence (the Quirinal Palace or the Palazzo Venezia or the Vatican). The whole ceremony was so heady, a glorification so great, that the triumphal procession at one point was interrupted and an ancient ritual was enacted, inherited from the triumphal processions of victorious Roman generals. A bundle of flax was ignited which quickly blazed into a brilliant flame, and then as quickly died out. Then the man who had burned the flax intoned, "Sancte Pater, sic transit gloria mundi" (Holy Father, thus passes the glory of the world).

The last Pope to be crowned in this way was Paul VI in 1963. But soon thereafter, he abolished the ceremony. He did it in two stages. First, Paul VI abolished the custom of carrying the Pope seated on a portable throne. In all ceremonies, he walked. This had already been done once by his predecessor, John XXIII. Pope John, who was very heavy, was carried in most ceremonies (but he raised the wages of the men who carried him). But on one great occasion the opening of the Second Vatican Council he walked in the procession into the Basilica, the first time ever that a Pope walked in a solemn ceremony.

But the definitive change was made by Paul VI when, during a solemn Mass at St. Peter’s, he removed the golden tiara from his head, handed it to the attendants and said, "Sell this and give the proceeds to the poor." (It was Cardinal Spellman of New York who bought it and donated it to the basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Washington D.C. where it is on exhibit in a glass case.)

After that, no Pope would ever again wear a tiara.

Paul VI went further. At the funeral Mass for a Cardinal, he forbade the ancient custom of having the coffin enthroned on a high platform. He had the coffin placed right on the floor, and ordered that the same would be done for him when he died. In his Will, he asked to be buried not in a marble sarcophagus (as was the custom) but in the earth.

Paul VI’s successor, John Paul I (Albino Luciani) accepted Paul VI’s innovations. He did not have himself crowned, but simply installed by having a woolen stole (the pallium) placed around his neck, symbol of spiritual (not temporal) authority. The same was done by John Paul II (1978).

That is today the new custom. Popes are no longer crowned as earthly kings. They are simply installed in office as the spiritual leader of the faithful.

It is the great paradox that, because he is no more than a spiritual leader, the Pope today exerts a greater moral force than ever before. The Kings and Presidents and Prime Ministers who attended the funeral of Pope John Paul II were a testimony to the almost universal recognition of the Pope as a spiritual leader, not only of Catholics but of the world.