| Papal Conclave, 1978 (october) |
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The October 1978 papal conclave was triggered by the sudden death, after only thirty three days in office, of Pope John Paul I . The Church had thought it had elected a pope in August 1978 who would reign for at least a decade. Instead it found itself having to elect another pope within six weeks. The second conclave, which began on 14 October was divided between two particularly strong candidates for the papacy: Giuseppe Cardinal Siri , the conservative archbishop of the Archdiocese Of Genoa , and the liberal Giovanni Cardinal Benelli , the archbishop of the Archdiocese Of Florence and a close associate of Pope John Paul I . Supporters of Benelli were confident that he would be elected. In early ballots, Benelli came within nine votes of victory. But the scale of opposition to both men meant that neither was likely to receive the two-thirds plus one needed for election. Franz Cardinal König , the influential and widely respected Archbishop of Vienna , suggested individually to cardinals a compromise, a Polish cardinal, Karol Cardinal Wojtyła, whom he knew and was highly impressed by. Supporters of Siri rallied behind Wojtyła, as did middle-ground Catholics. He ultimately defeated Benelli and was elected on the 8th ballot on the third day of the Conclave - 16 October 1978. He took the name John Paul II in honour of his predecessors. He received 99 votes from the 111 participating cardinals, according to the Italian press. John Paul II became the first non- Italian pope since the Dutchman Adrian VI held the papacy 1522 - 1523 . This was also the last conclave of the 20th century, as the next election for a pope did not occur again until the death of John Paul II in 2005. EXTERNAL LINKS
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