Book of JUDAS

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Five

Vatican City, Rome

Cardinal Fiore paused for a moment before entering the cloisters surrounding Bernini’s square. He watched the procession of Cardinals passing in front of him, their scarlet birettas covering the tops of their heads and their matching velvet robes flowing behind them as they paced across the piazza on their way to the portal of St. Paul’s Basilica. It was mid-morning on an early summer’s day and like the pageant in front of him, he was dressed in his full clerical regalia. The days leading up to this point had passed slowly but now the time had arrived to elect the new Pope.

Cardinal Fiore stepped through the doorway into the colonnade where his trusted allies, Cardinals Weiss and Lefebvre waited to join him. They both looked apprehensive at his arrival.

“Come, my friends,” said Fiore reassuringly, “let us see what outcome awaits us.”

He put his hand on their shoulders and steered them past the pillars and into the procession. They joined behind another group of Cardinal Priests who were marching purposefully across the square.

Cardinal Weiss, bolstered by his mentor’s confidence, gave a sanguine nod of agreement before suddenly turning to look skywards. The noise of the media helicopter above them was getting louder, he thought, as they strode on. Over the past thirty-six hours it had seemed like there was no other news in the world such was the attention being paid by the multitude of international TV crews to the unfolding events in the Vatican. The ancient and ceremonial tradition of electing the new Pope had caught not just the religiously minded but also the general public’s imagination.

The media crew manning the helicopter was swiftly informed by Vatican security that they were breaking the boundaries of acceptable behaviour. Moments later they diverted away from their hovering position on the perimeter of the Vatican City’s outer walls. With tranquillity restored, Cardinal Fiore stared up, marvelling at the architectural masterpiece that loomed ahead of them. Commissioned by Pope Julius II in 1506, St. Peter’s Basilica had taken over two hundred years to build with famed masters such as Bramante, Raphael and Michelangelo all taking time at the helm of the Cathedral’s noble creation. At the top of the building, he could see the splendid hemispherical dome but he knew privately from personal experience that if you wished to capture the best view of the dome’s architectural brilliance you needed to see it from the Papal gardens at the back.

Fiore studied the faces of his fellow Cardinals as they proceeded up the steps into the church. For many of them this was their first election to choose a new Pontiff. The deceased Pope Paul XII had reigned for a long time and the media had been rife with speculation about his successor. Many commentators propagated the view that as he had been responsible for selecting and swearing in so many of the new Cardinals there was a high probability that the new Pope would also share the same conservative outlook on pressing and contentious liturgical matters. However, Fiore knew this was unlikely to be the case with the frontrunners in this election.

Encouragingly for Camerlengo Fiore, many of the Cardinals who had travelled thousands of miles in the past few days recognized him as he climbed up the steps to the entrance. Before entering through the famous gateway, he paused and looked back nostalgically across the piazza. Once upon a time the square had been small and enclosed until Mussolini famously decided to change its appearance and made it much more open to the outside world. Fiore smiled to himself; he knew that once he entered St. Paul’s these doors would remain closed until the new Supreme Pontiff was revealed to the world. As soon as it was closed behind them, the closed outer gates of the Vatican would be opened allowing thousands of people, from all walks of life, to flood into Bernini’s Square to camp for the duration of the election, waiting and watching for the impending outcome.

Followed by Cardinal Weiss and Lefebvre, Fiore turned and walked into the Cathedral.

In the past, papal elections had taken days and sometimes weeks to decide, the whole process being filled with drama, intrigue and rumours were rife of bribes and promises to secure the votes of self-indulgent and self-motivated Cardinals. In modern times, the newspapers had reported, the election process had been subtly refined so that the final outcome could be reached within twenty-four hours and certainly should take no longer than two days. The rules stating who could be present during a papal election were very clear. Apart from the body of Cardinals eligible to participate and vote in the secret ballots the Constitution allowed for various outside personnel essential to control and manage the process. The secretary of the College of Cardinals was there to take on the secretarial duties of the electoral assembly. In addition, two medical doctors were there in case of emergency as well as chefs and housekeepers to meet the Cardinals’ daily needs and assistants to help the Cardinal Dean with his onerous tasks. In accordance with the rules, all the external personnel had been vetted and approved beforehand by the office of the Camerlengo.

The noise of the great doors being slammed shut together by two members of the Swiss Guard reverberated through the colossal inner halls. Cardinal Fiore walked solemnly over to the tomb of St. Peter to pay his respects.

Although there were over one hundred and fifty Cardinals worldwide, only those aged below eighty years old were entitled to vote. This meant that only one hundred and twenty would pass beneath the dome and through the great halls into the Sistine Chapel where they would remain until the voting was over.

Outside the doorway to the Sistine Chapel stood Colonel Renauld accompanied by members of the Swiss Guard under his command. It was his duty to guarantee the security of the ceremony that gathered the most senior clerics in the Catholic Church. As Fiore approached, their eyes met and Colonel Renauld, maintaining eye contact, slowly bowed his head in deference, before he strode past him, the last Cardinal to enter the chamber.

As he entered the Sistine Chapel, the doors were closed behind him. The secret meeting was known as a conclave, translating literally to mean “under locked key”. Inside, the Cardinals sat facing each other on either side of the great room below the celebrated fresco painted by Michelangelo on the ceiling shaped like a flattened barrel. The chapel, constructed in the fifteenth century, was rectangular in shape and built to the same specifications and dimensions as the Temple of Solomon as recounted in the Old Testament.

All the Cardinals began to take their seats on their individual thrones. The grand chairs were covered in violet cloth with a violet canopy above their heads. In addition there was a table in front of each throne, again covered in a violet cloth to be used by the Cardinal to record the results of the secret ballots as they were announced by the papal “scrutineers”.

Cardinal Gregory sat with his band of faithful supporters at one end of the hall while Cardinals Alphonso and Giacoma settled in a neutral section towards the middle. Those who supported the tall figure of Cardinal Camerlengo Fiore sat on the opposite side with the thrones between them filled by the many Cardinals whose intentions weren’t known.

At the turn of the century most of the Cardinals came from within Europe but during the time of Pope Paul XII the demographics had changed substantially with many of those present coming from Africa, North and South America and the Far East of Asia.

The only non-voting member of the gathering was the Dean of the Vatican College whose responsibility it was to conduct the election. He sat upright in a throne placed in the middle of the room between the Cardinals with a microphone raised before him. As Cardinal Fiore finally took his seat next to Cardinals Weiss and Lefebvre, the Dean broke into the excited chatter and opened his address to the gathered conclave.

“Your Eminences, my brothers, we are gathered here today to elect the new Supreme Pontiff, the religious head of our Catholic Church − in order to do so the chosen Cardinal must achieve two thirds of the vote plus one. There are one hundred and twenty of us in this room which means that if you grant eighty-one votes to the same nomination, to the same Cardinal, then he shall be declared the new Supreme Pontiff.”

Looking around the room, he paused to let his words take effect.

“The vote will be conducted through a secret ballot and if there is no outright decision at first, then the ballot will continue until the decision has been made.”

With the rising sound of murmuring in the background, Cardinal Gregory looked calmly and confidently towards Cardinal Alphonso. Since their meeting with Fiore straight after the news of the Pope’s death, he had urged Alphonso on several occasions and in no uncertain terms, to see Fiore for the man he was and throw his support behind him for the papal crown.

Cardinal Alphonso sat hunched on his hard wooden seat with his arms resting on top of his walking cane. His close friend, Cardinal Giacoma sat next to him. He had noticed that the past few days had really taken their toll on Cardinal Alphonso.

Alphonso knew that he would not win the secret ballot but he knew that he potentially controlled sufficient votes to give either Gregory or Fiore the prized number they were looking for.

The problem, thought Alphonso, is which one of them can be called upon to make the big decisions against the Satanica in this pressurized time of crisis that threatens the very heart of our religion? He still felt that the note left by the deceased Pope Paul XII supporting Fiore was genuine and was also slightly disenchanted by the way Cardinal Gregory had been conducting himself of late. He seemed more intent on grabbing the papal throne at any cost than on focusing on the calamity that would unfold once the Book of Judas was found. However, Alphonso drummed his fingers on the head of his cane, his anxieties were not automatically relieved when he considered the proposition of electing Fiore.

Cardinal Alphonso gave a wry smile as he contemplated the ironic timing of the election ceremony. Of the hundred and twenty cardinals present, only six were aware of the Book of Judas that endangered their existence. How would they vote, he wondered, if they knew what was really happening?

In the background, the Dean continued his opening address, explaining to the Cardinals the election procedure and informing them that anyone present could stand as a candidate. Finally, he approached the moment where he would ask that those who wished to be considered for the position of Supreme Pontiff should make themselves known.

Around the room, solitary Cardinals dressed in their fine scarlet robes stood up to signify that they wished to be accepted as contenders. The Dean asked them to introduce themselves and one by one they announced their names, their dioceses and a summary of the Catholic and Papal views for which they stood. This change to the charter for papal elections had been introduced by the recently deceased Supreme pontiff himself, adamant that the romantic traditions of the ages should be tempered by a more democratic and more informed procedure.

Six contenders entered the first secret ballot and Cardinal Gregory spoke first, followed by Alphonso and the other candidates. Cardinal Fiore elected to speak last. In silence the conclave, sat in their violet thrones, listened to their salutary words as they echoed around the chamber before the Dean informed them it was time for them to cast their first votes.

Many blank ballot papers had already been dispatched by the scrutineers, placed on the tables within easy reach of the Cardinals who were politely reminded that abstentions were not permitted. The ballot box was placed in the centre near the Dean, and the Cardinals took it in turn to walk across the chapel floor and swear the ritual oath before casting their vote. After completing the words, they placed their ballot paper in the receptacle before bowing towards the altar and returning to their throne.

Only ten minutes after the last Cardinal registered the final vote, the three chosen scrutineers began counting the papers. The rules of the election provided that each one of them had a specific task to do. The first scrutineer opened the folded ballot papers and noted the chosen Cardinal’s name before passing it on the second. He too noted the contents before handing it over to the third scrutineer who read the name of the selected Cardinal out aloud to the gathered assembly. Each Cardinal, sat at his throne, recorded the announcement on the table in front of them thus keeping track of the votes as they were called. Finally, after the third scrutineer had called out the Cardinal’s name he pierced the ballot paper with a needle and placed it on a thread, which was tied in a knot at one end.

Once the final name was read out, it was the job of the “revisers” who were tasked with checking the work of the scrutineers to move into place to verify the result.

As predicted by many the first secret ballot was indeterminate.

Cardinal Alphonso glanced around at Gregory and Fiore as the votes were being read out. Both were surreptitiously straining to see the third scrutineer while at the same time marking down the score on the table in front of them. They look excited, thought Alphonso as he watched them anxiously record each vote.

“And finally Cardinal Gregory,” called the third scrutineer, enjoying the avid attention of his audience. Many of the new Cardinals who had not witnessed the election before were carried along by the magic and grandeur of the traditional occasion. Some of the older Cardinals, though, had seen it all before – they knew that the same process might be carried out many times before a final result would be known.

Cardinal Alphonso sat back in his throne and smiled dryly as he mulled over the consequences of the result he had penned for the first ballot.

The revisers did not take long and the Dean finally stood up in front of the microphone clutching a piece of paper to announce the outcome.

“Your Graces, the ballot papers have been counted and the result is as follows,” he said, looking up at the eager faces around the room.

“His Eminence Cardinal Salvatore − five votes, His Eminence Cardinal Heath − two votes, His Eminence Cardinal Palermo − four votes…” He paused, savouring the anticipation around the room as he reached the names the whole chamber was waiting to hear.

“His Eminence Cardinal Alphonso − thirty-one votes,” he said slowly.

Cardinal Alphonso was pleased; he had received more support than he had imagined.

“His Eminence Cardinal Gregory − thirty-nine votes,” he called, his voice reaching a crescendo.

Around the chapel, the chatter grew louder.

“And finally, His Eminence Cardinal Fiore − also thirty-nine votes.”

The sound suddenly increased as Cardinal Gregory and Cardinal Fiore both received the joyous and vocal congratulations of their loyal supporters. For one bitter moment they stared coldly at each other across the magnificent chamber before turning back and gratefully accepting the plaudits of the surrounding Cardinals by respectfully bowing their heads in a gesture of appreciation.

“And now,” continued the Dean, “we will proceed to a second ballot, which will commence with the two candidates who received the most votes − Cardinal Gregory and Cardinal Fiore. We shall take a short break for exactly one hour before commencing the second ballot.”

Pope Paul XII’s change to the constitution should speed things up, thought Alphonso as he watched the scrutineers, along with the secretary of the Conclave and the Master of Ceremonies, gather up the ballot papers and take them to be burned. Mixed with wet straw they would emit the black smoke that signalled to the expectant crowds and outside world that the first ballot had been unsuccessful.