Delivery is that of eternal silence. Before, during and after. The secret of the Conclave is a "grave obligation". The election of Peter's successor to lead the Church of Rome is inviolable for anyone. Certainly, however, the designation of Joseph Ratzinger, the German Pope, is a mystery among mysteries. Epochal passages in the millenary history of Oltretevere, from the ballot that consecrated him Pope, to his sensational resignation, up to the succession of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the Pope who came from far away. A common thread that unfolds in the most insidious chapters of the last seventeen years of the Sancta Romana Ecclesia , since John Paul II left forever the earthly guide of the Universal Church after a pontificate that lasted 27 years. The story, therefore, the one enclosed within the Vatican walls, can only be told on tiptoe, well aware that on those pages whispered inside the Sistine Chapel, seat of the Conclave, there can be no evidence. Everything is burned, from the ballot papers to the sheet that is given to each voter, with all the names of the Cardinal electors written on it. No fingerprints are left, even by mistake. From that 2 April 2005, when Karol Wojtyla died, to today, however, the "divine" facts that have crossed paths in the history of the church go far beyond the mystery.

Secret tales

To mark the most delicate passages, it is necessary to resort to direct and reserved stories, shadow men who guided the passing away in silence, with wisdom and rigor. Then there are narrow and impervious streets, from those prescribed by canon law to the feared splits in a church always tormented by the atavistic dispute between conservatives and reformists. Today more than ever, even and above all after the death of Pope Ratzinger, reopening those drawers that have been sealed for a long time helps to understand the passages that have shaped one of the bloodiest phases in Vatican history. In this scenario of mysteries there are secret stories and protagonists who have remained silent. Among all there is, unquestionably, a name that has always remained in the shadows, that of the Sardinian Cardinal Mario Francesco Pompedda, a powerful among the powerful of the universal church. A key man, who died suddenly on February 18, 2006, just ten months after the election of Joseph Ratzinger as Pope. It is he, more than anyone else, who in that conclave has to shoulder the weight of the election of the Holy Father, if only for having rewritten, on the direct mandate of Karol Wojtyla, the very rigorous rules for the succession of John Paul II. A role of guarantee and right, a personality who knows the feeble limit of the internal "agreements" of the Conclave, with the always latent risk of nullity of the election should a clear and explicit agreement emerge between several parties to condition the "call" of the Supreme Pontiff.

“Sardinian” conclave

It is the story of a humble Sardinian prelate, who became bishop and supreme custodian of the universal justice of the Church, that gives him that authority which many recognize in the upper floors of St. Peter's. Still without an ecclesiastical title, Pompedda was commissioned by the Holy Father to rewrite the rules governing "the vacant see and the election of the pontiff". All provisions signed by the Sardinian Cardinal that John Paul II promulgates with the Constitution Universi dominici gregis of 22 February 1996. Norms which established important innovations on the quorum for the election of the Pope and rejected the acclamation or the conspiratio . It was therefore no coincidence that John Paul II, on November 29, 1997, appointed him Bishop, with the title of Archbishop of Bisarcio, chosen in homage to his homeland. The career of God's Advocate is fulminant: on November 16, 1999 he was appointed Prefect of the Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura and at the same time President of the Court of Cassation of the Vatican City State, effectively becoming the number one of Justice in the Universal Church. On February 21, 2001, John Paul II named him Cardinal.

The wind of history

From that moment on, the Sardinian eminence becomes an indispensable point of reference precisely for the future conclave, the one that will have to elect the successor of Karol Wojtyla, the Great. The relationship with Joseph Ratzinger, at that moment the number two of the Holy See, is one of respect and mutual recognition, at the same time, however, the cardinal of Ozieri weaves relationships with everyone, even with Jorge Mario Bergoglio, that street Cardinal of whom everyone , from Villa Miseria, the Argentine favelas, to all of South America, describe as a revolutionary man for the church. The wind blowing hard on the Gospel placed on Karol's coffin, Ratzinger's candid hair rippled by the gusts that cross St. Peter's are divine symbols imprinted in history. It was April 17, 2005 when the 115 Cardinals with the right to vote crossed the door of the Conclave, the one called to elect Wojtyla's successor. Is Sunday. For almost everyone it is the first time in the seat of the Sistine Chapel. Only two of them had participated in the election of the Polish Pope, one of them is the Cardinal Dean, Joseph Ratzinger, the predestined. In the Mass of April 18, the Pro Eligendo Romano Pontifice , in St. Peter's Basilica, he delivers the opening homily of the Conclave. He was not Pope yet, but his words resounded like a heavy investiture, almost a programmatic manifesto of the future church. The Cardinal theologian, the glacial German who came from Bavaria to the land of Peter, was to all intents and purposes the strongest candidate in the papal ascendancy. The risk, however, of entering Pope and remaining Cardinal was anything but unrealistic. The ways of the Lord and those of the Conclave were, after all, infinite and mysterious. The election of the 265th pope was anything but obvious. What will happen in those two days of the Conclave, in a Sistine Chapel forbidden to anyone, is sculpted in the mystery and in the secret notes of that election. They had all pledged themselves with a sacred oath: "We promise and swear to observe with the utmost fidelity and with everyone, both clerics and laymen, the secrecy of everything that in any way regards the election of the Roman pontiff and of what happens in the place of election, directly or indirectly concerning the ballot".

The contention

What happens in the seat of St. Peter, however, is a story that we can recall with details learned from the whispered voice of a protagonist, exactly the day after that Conclave. Competing for the papal miter are Joseph Ratzinger and Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the Italian-Argentine. It is the numbers that sanction a very delicate game for the succession. Joseph Ratzinger, one of the contenders for the throne of Peter, presides over the Conclave. It is he who recalls the clauses and rules of the election: the Apostolic Constitution of the Supreme Pontiff John Paul II, Universi Dominici Gregis , issued on February 22, 1996, precisely those written by Mario Francesco Pompedda, the Sardinian Cardinal. For 115 times, for each vote, the oath is solemn. Before each ballot placed in the urn, the cardinals invoke the fateful phrase: "I call as witness Christ the Lord, who will judge me, that my vote is given to the one whom, according to God, I believe should be elected". There will be three votes before the election of Karol's successor, all three marked by results that risk blocking the designation of the new Pope.

The Bisarcio Manual

The manual of the Sardinian Bishop of Bisarcio, Cardinal Pompedda, regulates the scrutiny. And he, the custodian of those laws, is there. In the first vote, Joseph Ratzinger, dean of the Sacred College, obtained 47 votes, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Archbishop of Buenos Aires, ten, Carlo Maria Martini, archbishop emeritus of Milan, nine, Camillo Ruini, former Apostolic Vicar of His Holiness for the diocese of Rome six, Angelo Sodano, former Vatican secretary of state four. Ratzinger is the only one to obtain a structured vote, but earthly providence suggests an alliance between the opponents of the Dean, considered too conservative for a Church of the third millennium. It is in the second vote that the bloc advances heavily.

The last vote

Ratzinger still lacks 30 votes to reach the two-thirds necessary for the election, but what appears in the ballot box is what is described as a "man of prayer, who shuns the media scene and leads a sober and evangelical lifestyle". It is the Argentine Cardinal Mario Jorge Bergoglio. The second vote confirms the turning point: Ratzinger 65, Bergoglio 35. The dean needs 12 votes to reach two thirds, a bar set at 77 votes, but the Argentine needs four to block the way for the future Pope. It is Tuesday 19 April, it's 11 in the morning. The historical and secret memory of that morning marks the third vote: Ratzinger 72, Bergoglio 40. Peter's church risks deadlock. The Cardinal of the tango shuns, he would like to remain among the poor of his Argentina, but his supporters are adamant. It is at that point that "Divine Providence", without writing anything, because any pact would have nullified any subsequent act, including the election of the Pope, suggests an ideal relay, the one between Joseph Ratzinger and Jorge Bergoglio, the conservative and the reformist . Pompedda is reserved, he speaks with looks, with the authority of one who has reaffirmed in his "code of the conclave" the possibility of electing a new Pope even in the presence of his predecessor.

Key passage

It's the key step. Ratzinger in the fourth vote is elected 265th pontiff of the Holy Roman Church. Bergoglio returns to his Buenos Aires, but not forever. A year after Pompedda died, his apartment in Santa Marta was immediately sealed with sealing wax and the stamp of the Papal State. The funeral of the Sardinian cardinal is celebrated by Joseph Ratzinger, the Pope himself. Seven years later, on 23 February 2013, the German Pope resigned as Supreme Pontiff for the second time in the two thousand years of history of the Church, officially for health reasons. It is at that point that the Cardinals, to choose Joseph's successor, "went to get him almost to the end of the world". Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the Pope of the Argentine "favelas", becomes Francis. A road marked by history and by a conclave, that of the election of Ratzinger, as mysterious as it is enlightened. Mario Francesco Pompedda, the supreme judge, the refined Sardinian jurist, of that conclave was a witness and protagonist, in the secret and far-sightedness of the church of Rome.

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