The Papal Coronation is a ceremony in which a new pope is crowned as head of the Roman Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City (and before 1870, head of state of the Papal States). A three-tiered Triple Tiara or Papal Tiara was used in the ceremony, and the new pope would take the papal oath.

Location of the ceremony

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The first papal coronations took place in St. John Lateran, the pope's cathedral. However traditionally for hundreds of years papal coronations have taken place in the environs of St. Peter's Basilica, though a number of coronations took place in Avignon during the Avignon papacy. In 1800 Pius VII was crowned in the crowded church of the Benedictine island monastery of San Giorgio, after his late predecessor had been forced into temporary exile during Napoleon Bonaparte's capture of Rome.

All coronations since 1800 have taken place in Rome. Until the mid 19th century popes were crowned in St. John Lateran. However public hostility to the Pope in Rome led to the ceremony being moved to the safer St. Peter's Basilica. Leo XIII was crowned in the Sistine Chapel,Contemporary description of the coronation of Pope Leo XIII due to fears that anti-clerical mobs, inspired by Italian unification, might attack the Basilica and disrupt the ceremony. Benedict XV was also crowned in the chapel in 1914. Pius XI was crowned at the dais in front of the High Altar in St. Peter's Basilica. Popes Pius IX, Pius XII, John XXIII and Paul VI all were crowned in public on the balcony of the basilica, facing mass crowds assembled below in St. Peter's Square.

Pius XII's 1939 coronation broke new grounds by being the first coronation to be filmed and the first coronation to be broadcast live on radio. John Cornwell, Hitler's Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII (Viking, 1999) pp. 211-212 The ceremony, which lasted for six hours, was attended by leading dignitaries; attendants at the coronation included the heir to the Italian throne, the Prince of Piedmont, ex-kings Ferdinand I of Bulgaria and Alfonso XIII of Spain, the Duke of Norfolk (representing King George VI of the United Kingdom) and the Irish Taoiseach Éamon de Valera, all in evening dress (white tie and tails).

Paul VI and the coronation

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The last pope to be crowned by this method was Paul VI. Though he decided to cease wearing a papal tiara within weeks of his coronation, and laid his own on the altar of St. Peter's Basilica in a gesture of humility, his 1975 Apostolic Constitution, Romano Pontifici Eligendo, explicitly required his successor to have a coronation, stating:

the new pontiff is to be crowned by the senior cardinal deacon.Romano Pontifici Eligendo Section 92.

Nevertheless, amid considerable opposition from within the Curia, his successor John Paul I opted not to be crowned, instead choosing to have a less formal Papal Inauguration Mass. David Yallop, In God's Name: An Investigation into the Murder of Pope John Paul I (Corgi, 1985) p.237.

John Paul II and the coronation

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After John Paul I's sudden death following a thirty-three day reign, the new pope John Paul II, opted to copy his predecessor's low-key ceremony rather than reinstate the papal coronation. In his homily at his Inauguration Mass, he said that that Paul VI had "left his successors free to decide" whether to wear the papal tiara.Papal Inauguration Homily of Pope John Paul II, L'Osservatore Romano (Text of the Homily) He went on:

Pope John Paul I, whose memory is so vivid in our hearts, did not wish to have the tiara; nor does his Successor wish it today. This is not the time to return to a ceremony and an object considered, wrongly, to be a symbol of the temporal power of the Popes.

Critics and supporters of a return to papal coronations interpreted his words "This is not the time" as indicating either that the time for such ancient ceremonial was over in the post-Vatican II era, or that, weeks after the sudden death of Pope John Paul I and barely six weeks after the previous inauguration, 'today' (his inauguration day) was not the time to revert to the previous ceremony, but that a return to a traditional coronation was an option for future popes.

John Paul II in his 1996 Apostolic Constitution, Universi Dominici Gregis, left it up to each future pope to decide whether they wanted an inauguration or a coronation. He wrote:

After the solemn ceremony of the inauguration of the pontificate and within an appropriate time... Universi Dominici Gregis Section 92

Nowhere was it stated what form that 'inauguration of a pontificate' would take; both a papal inauguration and a papal coronation technically could be used to inaugurate (ie. ceremonially begin) a pontificate: both ceremonies had been described in the past using such a term. In writing about the 'inauguration of a pontificate' rather than a specific 'inauguration of a pope' the precise form of ceremony future popes may use is left to them individually to decide. John Paul II's only requirement was that some 'solemn ceremony' take place to begin a pontificate.

Conservative criticism of Benedict XVI's decision not to be crowned

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In 2005 John Paul II's successor, Benedict XVI disappointed some Catholic "ultra-traditionalists" when he opted not to use some form of papal coronation but instead to use an adapted version of a papal inauguration.Ultratraditionalist Catholic website critical of Benedict's decision not to be crowned When asked if the new pope, when shown draft plans for his inauguration, had requested any changes, a Vatican spokesman declined to comment. Some ultra conservatives also criticised Benedict XVI for failing to take the supposed papal oath, the very existence of which is disputed, and which film of the 1939, 1958 and 1963 papal coronations shows never featured in those ceremonies. The absence of this supposed oath, and his failure to be crowned with, and wear, a papal tiara, means that Benedict XVI is not considered a legitimate Pope, but merely an antipope, in the eyes of some ultra-traditionalist Catholics.

Footnotes

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Crowns | Holy See | Monarchy | Papal Tiara | State ritual and ceremonial