Word: luciani
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Seated at a table in front of the Sistine Chapel altar, the Cardinal solemnly intoned the name written on each ballot. "Luciani . . . Luciani . . . Luciani . . ." Beside him sat two other Cardinal scrutatores (vote counters) who carefully plucked the ballots from a silver chalice, unfolded them and passed them to their colleague. It was the fourth and final ballot of the astonishing one-day conclave that gave the Catholic world its 263rd Pope: Albino Cardinal Luciani, 65, Patriarch of Venice...
...teacher who seemed to show a rare blend of strength and humility, a fine gift for words, a reassuring balance between kindness and worldly practicality. But how had he come to be chosen? And why? Had some kind of secret combine among the Princes of the Church brought Luciani to the fore? Or a compromise that, despite formal assertions of happiness, really left nobody happy...
...from the outside world. But after this conclave-perhaps out of sheer exuberance over the results-a number of participants proved talkative, and TIME'S Jordan Bonfante and Roland Flamini have pieced together much of the story of the proceedings in the Sistine Chapel. It is clear that Luciani came to power through no accident, but as a result of a spontaneous consensus that evolved from three agreements reached during the lengthy pre-conclave period that followed the death of Pope Paul...
...atmosphere of high tension, the true contest already lay between two groups of Italians, the well-known Curialists Baggio, Pignedoli and Paolo Bertoli, and the "pastoral" archbishops. By process of elimination the pastoral choices soon narrowed down to Giuseppe Siri, 72, of Genoa, Corrado Ursi, 70, of Naples, and Luciani. Siri had the backing of the unequivocal right-wingers, and for that very reason failed to attract a broader base. Ursi lacked the stature and popularity of the other two. And there was Luciani, a man not actively disliked by anyone, and actively liked by everyone who really knew...
...third ballot, at 4:30-after a traditional Roman siesta-Luciani burst to the fore, falling just short of a majority. "At that point," Luciani explained later with a smile, "it began to get dangerous for me." Cardinals Willebrands of The Netherlands and Ribeiro of Portugal, sitting on either side of him, leaned toward him. Whispered one: "Courage. If the Lord gives a burden, he also gives the strength to carry it." Whispered the other: "The whole world prays for the new Pope...