Papal Inauguration

Pope Paul VI, the last Pope to be crowned or use a Papal Tiara, abandoned the usage of the tiara in a ceremony at the end of the Council, and gave his personal tiara to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in the City of Washington as a gift to the Roman Catholics of the United States. However more than 20 other tiaras remain in the Vatican for possible future use. (One is still used to symbolically crown a statue of Saint Peter on his saint's day every year.) The first pope to receive an inauguration instead of coronation was Pope John Paul I.

The Replacement of the Coronation

He may have decided not to wear his own personal tiara, but Paul VI's 1975 Apostolic Constitution explicitly required that his successor be crowned. Following the election of Pope John Paul I in the August 1978 conclave, initial media reports spoke of a standard papal coronation taking place. However the new pope , in the face of considerable Vatican opposition, wanted the ceremony replaced. He was supported by Virgilius Noe, the Papal Master of Ceremonies, and one of the most controversial innovators of new liturgy after Vatican II. (In the early 2000s, when Pope John Paul II decided to allow Tridentine Masses to be celebrated more frequently, including in St. Peter's Basilica – he also celebrated them himself in his private chapel – the then Cardinal Noe managed successfully to stop Tridentine Masses from being allowed on the main High Altar.) Noe designed the new inauguration Mass along ideas suggested by the new pope, who had requested a low key ceremony to be celebrated in the morning so as not to disrupt coverage of a Italian soccer match on RAI in the afternoon.

His successor, Pope John Paul II, to some extent obliged by the atmosphere of mourning after John Paul I's sudden death, followed suit, maintaining the changes made by his predecessor, though with some ritualistic additions, some of which echoed the former coronations. In his inauguration homily however he spoke of October 1978, so soon after the sudden death, as being "not the time" to return to the coronation, while dismissing the principal justification given for abandoning both the coronation and the Papal Tiara, the suggestion that their use suggested a claim by popes to temporal jurisdiction.

In his 1996 Apostolic Constitution, John Paul II required that some "solemn ceremony of the inauguration of a pontificate" take place, but did not specify whether than ceremony inaugurating (ie, symbolically marking the beginning of) a pontificate should be a full Papal Inauguration or a traditional Papal Coronation. He left it open to each pope to decide which rite of enthronement they wished to use.

The Inauguration

The modern Papal Inauguration, based through not exactly modelled on the form used for John Paul I, takes place during Mass (usually in the piazza outside Saint Peter's Basilica) and involves the formal bestowal of the pallium, the symbol of the pope's universal jurisdiction, on the newly elected pope by the senior Cardinal Deacon.

Three popes have used the inauguration ceremony: Pope John Paul I, Pope John Paul II, (both in 1978) and Pope Benedict XVI (2005).

Pope Benedict XVI maintained those changes and introduced yet another one: the vow of obedience, which the cardinals would have made one at a time during the Mass, was anticipated and only a symbolic vow was made during the ceremony, as it is explained below.

Controversially, the modern ceremony no longer uses the obligatory Papal Oath that was previous always sworn by popes. Conservatives criticised its absence, with some sedevacantist groups refusing to accept the legitimacy of the modern popes due to the absence of both the previously mandatory oath and the symbolic tiara.

Inauguration of Benedict XVI

Pope Benedict XVI was formally inaugurated as Supreme Pontiff on April 24, 2005. The day after his election, Benedict approved new procedures for the inauguration.

The ceremony began with Benedict and the Cardinals kneeling at the tomb of Saint Peter — considered the first Pope — to give him homage. Benedict said, "I leave from where the Apostle arrived." The Pope and the Cardinals then processed out to Saint Peter's Square for the Inauguration Mass.

Receiving the Pallium

Benedict received the pallium and the Ring of the Fisherman. His pallium is 2.6 yards (2.4 metres) long, and is made of wool with black silk tips. Instead of six black crosses that other Bishop's palliums have, Benedict's pallium has five embroidered red silk crosses. There are three pins in three of the crosses to symbolize the three nails driven into Jesus at his crucifixion.

Swearing obedience to the pope

Not all the Cardinals knelt before Benedict to swear loyalty to him, since they already did so right after his election. Instead, a group consisting of the acting Dean of the College of Cardinals, the senior Cardinal Priest, the senior Cardinal Deacon, the Bishop of Benedict's former suburbicarian diocese of Velletri-Segni, the Priest serving as pastor of Benedict's former titular church as a Cardinal Priest, a religious Brother, a Deacon, a Benedictine Nun, a married couple from Korea with their child, and a young woman from Sri Lanka and young man from the Democratic Republic of the Congo who had been previously confirmed knelt before Benedict to swear obedience to him. This group of 12 people symbolized the twelve Apostles.

New Vatican dress code

One change was made to the previous dresscode followed for inaugurations. While in the past diplomatic attendees, including heads of state and government as well as ambassadors, were required to wear evening dress (white tie and tails, and silk top hat), matching the usual dress codes for formal Vatican ceremonies, Benedict XVI allowed visiting dignitaries to wear lounge suits.

After the ceremony

After Mass, Benedict greeted various delegations present for his Inauguration. In the days following his inauguration he visited the other basilicas of Rome. He visited St. Paul Outside the Walls. On May 7 he celebrated his enthronement Mass at St. John Lateran – the cathedral church of the Rome. Benedict proceeded to then visit the final basilica – Saint Mary Major.

The future of the Inauguration Ceremony

More conservative members of the Roman Catholic Church, especially those that believe that the Second Vatican Council went too far in destroying sacred institutions lasting through millennia, have openly requested the return of the tradition of crowning popes. Traditional Catholics, whether sedevacantist or not, consider the absence of the Coronation and Oath to be particularly wrong, with some sedevacantist groups justifying their belief that neither John Paul I, John Paul II nor Benedict XVI were valid popes on their failure to take what before was seen as the mandatory oath of office.

Pope John Paul's 1996 Apostolic Constitution leaves it open to future popes to choose, if they wish, to return to the rite of Papal Coronation. But with the current emphasis on making the church a simpler and less regal institution, it remains to be seen if any future Popes would use the Papal Coronation ceremony, whether they will be crowned in a new style papal coronation modelled on the Inauguration Mass, or whether the tiara-less Inauguration Mass, as celebrated twice in 1978 and again in 2005 is here to stay.