The Hindu : International : Faithful watch for signs

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Apr 02, 2005

International

International

Faithful watch for signs

VATICAN CITY, APRIL 1. A closed bronze door. Drawn shutters. Tolling bells. Sombre music. They are all signs that a pontiff has passed.

Over centuries, the most traditional and telling signal that a Pope has died has been the tolling of the Vatican's bells, which prompts churches across Rome to join in. But there is also the symbolic shutting of the Bronze Door, a massive portal beneath a portico off St. Peter's Square that is closed when a Pope dies and is kept shut until a new pontiff is elected.

Its modern use is spotty. In 1978, when two Popes died in rapid succession, the tradition was ignored. Under normal circumstances, the Bronze Door is closed every night at around 8 p.m. and reopened in the morning, making it unsuitable for a night-time announcement.

And papal observers say it is not clear whether the shutting of the door even in daytime would precede or follow an official announcement.

Pope-watchers also are keeping a watchful eye on the shutters of the two windows at the side of Pope John Paul II's third-floor apartment overlooking St. Peter's Square. Some say the closing of the shutters can be the first tangible sign of a death.

Tradition dictates that the Pope's vicar for Rome, Cardinal Camillo Ruini, would make a formal announcement to Romans. The Vatican almost certainly would have made an earlier announcement to the media, either via Vatican Radio, which then plays sombre music, or the Pope's spokesman, Joaquin Navarro-Valls, meaning the world would know by the time Cardinal Ruini read out the news. — AP

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