Holy Spirit, humanity on hand for conclave, says Maryland priest who served at papal election

With the conclave just a few days away, the pastor of a Maryland parish told OSV News he has “an enormous degree of confidence” in the papal selection process, having seen it from the inside in 2005 when Pope Benedict XVI was chosen.

“I saw the seriousness on their faces. I saw the cardinals praying in the chapel at night. I saw the earnestness with which it was going on,” said Monsignor K. Bartholomew Smith of St. Bernadette Parish in Silver Spring.

As a priest in 2002, Msgr. Smith had been appointed secretary to the late Cardinal William Wakefield Baum, who at the time was in Rome, having previously served as the archbishop of Washington and as the major penitentiary of the Vatican’s Apostolic Penitentiary, a Vatican court dealing with matters related to the sacrament of confession and to indulgences.

The cardinal, who died in 2015, “had been suffering various afflictions and was losing various abilities” for years, said Msgr. Smith. “And so I went over and I lived with him and helped him do things he needed to do to participate in the life of the church as a cardinal in the Curia.”

Despite his ailments, Cardinal Baum “still participated in various congregations and other events,” and he was a cardinal elector — a cardinal eligible to vote for a pope — when St. John Paul II died and a conclave was formed to elect the next successor of St. Peter.

Msgr. Smith said his “first job” was to get Cardinal Baum, then in the U.S. due to illness, “back to Rome.”

Once there, said Msgr. Smith, the cardinal “was very eager to participate in the general congregations,” the meetings held by the cardinals in advance of the conclave.

But having been “housebound for the previous two and a half months,” Cardinal Baum still needed assistance, “so I had to go with him to get him to where he needed to go,” said Msgr. Smith.

For the first week, then-Father Smith “literally sat outside the meeting room in case he needed me, because obviously you couldn’t be in there.”

The cardinal stabilized for a time, but as the conclave neared, “it came to the point where he did require assistance because he had very poor vision as well as difficulty walking from spinal deterioration … (and) he needed me to accompany him into the conclave,” said Msgr. Smith.

Cardinal Baum asked permission of Cardinal Eduardo Martínez Somalo, at that time the camerlengo (the Vatican chamberlain), if then-Father Smith could be admitted into the proceedings to assist him.

The priest quickly learned that there were, in a sense, two conclaves, which he described as “broad” and “narrow” — with the later comprising the cardinal electors in the Sistine Chapel and their balloting sessions, and the former including “the cooks, the housekeepers, the drivers, the security people, the ceremonial people.”

“Somebody has to feed them (the cardinals). Somebody has to drive the bus that takes them back to where the food is. Somebody has to be there to run the elevators to get them down to where the bus is,” said Msgr. Smith.

In 2005, then-Father Smith became part of that “broad conclave” contingent — and along with all those assisting the cardinal electors, he took an oath swearing absolute, perpetual secrecy regarding the papal election’s balloting and scrutiny, under penalty of automatic excommunication.

That same oath — outlined in St. John Paul II’s 1996 apostolic constitution “Universi Dominici Gregis” (“Shepherd of the Lord’s Whole Flock”), with the document amended under Pope Benedict XVI — will be taken May 5 by staffers assisting the cardinals in the coming conclave, at which the successor of Pope Francis, who died on April 21, will be named.

Msgr. Smith said while he was an assistant, he helped Cardinal Baum “to get to his seat intact.”

Afterwards, “we slipped away, and a cardinal comes to the door and closes it and bolts it,” he said. “There’s only cardinals inside and we’re just outside. But we’re still cut off from everybody else, even though we’re outside the Sistine Chapel.”

While the proceedings remain under seal, Msgr. Smith said that faithful can be assured of the integrity and wisdom that govern the conclave, which is conducted according to strict canonical norms.

“They’re very serious about what they’re doing,” he said. “The whole process happens under their (the cardinal electors’) eyes, while they’re watching.”

Equally key is the time preceding the conclave, during which the cardinal electors “are getting to know one another,” Msgr. Smith said.

Along with listening to each other’s addresses during the congregational meetings that precede the conclave, the cardinal electors “will also run into a guy at the coffee machine, and they will see what kind of a guy he is. … Is he good natured? Is he attentive, is he helpful? Is he preoccupied?” said Msgr. Smith.

Such encounters — which can include simple exchanges “about the weather” — highlight “the human nature of each one of the cardinals,” he said. “And then the fellow that … helped them out at the coffee bar the day before stands up the day after, and he gives a talk (at the congregation), and there’s something authentic about it.”

As participants in the conclave, the cardinal electors themselves provide “the scrutiny” required for the election, said Msgr. Smith. “They pay attention.”

Msgr. Smith noted the conclave is marked by a strong sense of formality, with “manners,” “consideration” and “respect” characterizing the interactions.

“And because it all happens under their eyes as it goes by, they learn from one another in a variety of ways,” he said. “It’s a process of discernment as to who is to be the next successor of Peter.”

That discernment “is the process of the conclave,” he said. “And that’s very much where the prayer and the influence of the Holy Spirit (comes in), because the Holy Spirit not only gives us eyes to see, but eyes to recognize the good as good.”

“It’s all (happening) right there while they’re together,” said Msgr. Smith, adding, “They all know the next pope is probably in the room.”

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