Saturday, February 26, 2005

Bronze door off St. Peter's Square traditionally heralds change at top of church

By William J. Kole / Associated Press Writer

Plinio Lepri / Associated Press Swiss guards stand guard at the Bronze Door, a storied portal that for centuries has informed the faithful of the death of a pope, at the Vatican, Friday. Tradition is that officials over the centuries have closed the massive door under a portico off St. Peter's Square when a pope dies and have kept it shut until a new pontiff is elected. Comment on this story Send this story to a friend Get Home Delivery

VATICAN CITY -- The inner workings of the Vatican are cloaked in mystery, and among its more arcane traditions is the Bronze Door -- a storied portal that for centuries has informed the faithful of the death of a pope.

Its modern use is spotty. In 1978, when two popes died in rapid succession, the tradition was ignored. Now, in the information age of e-mail, Internet and cell phone text messages, it's doubtful the door will give the world its first word of Pope John Paul II's eventual passing.

But the tradition lives on at the Holy See, where officials over the centuries have closed the massive door under a portico off St. Peter's Square when a pope dies and have kept it shut until a new pontiff is elected.

"The extent to which this tradition will be observed or not really remains to be seen," said John-Peter Pham, a Vatican expert at James Madison University in Virginia.

Under normal circumstances, the Bronze Door is closed every night at around 8 p.m. and reopened in the morning. That raises questions about how the Vatican would handle a nighttime death, and papal observers say it's not clear whether the shutting of the door even in daytime would precede or follow an official announcement.

"The closing of the door is supposed to be part of the papal transition, but as far as I know it's not the signal that announces the death," said the Rev. Thomas Reese, editor of the Jesuit weekly magazine America and author of a book on the secretive workings of the Vatican.

Pham worked at the Vatican in the 1990s as a counselor to the late Cardinal Francois-Xavier Nguyen van Thuan, who headed the Holy See's Office of Justice and Peace. Pham says it's anyone's guess what role -- if any -- the door will have in John Paul's eventual passing.

"There's more mystique built up around the shutting of the Bronze Door than it deserves," he said.

To be sure, the door has a rich history dating to medieval times, when palaces would slam their gates shut upon the death of a pope to try to discourage the looting that inevitably took place in the power vacuum.

"People would take what they could carry and make off with it," Pham said. "It was basically a security measure to keep the help from walking off with the goods."

Shutting the main door to a home became a symbol of mourning in much of Europe, and the closing of the Bronze Door to mark the death of a pope dates to the 19th century, historians say.

Roman Catholic Church law once ordered a pope's apartments to be sealed upon his death so aides wouldn't make off with his important papers, Pham said. But John Paul modified that to ensure that the papers are secured while allowing his closest confidantes to remain in the apartments until after the funeral.

The more 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. "And then obviously there will be a public announcement," Pham said.

Something similar happens in many Muslim countries when a head of state dies: Radio and TV stations switch to playing somber music or the reciting of Quranic verses. And in Britain and other monarchies, the death of a king or queen has been marked by the lowering of flags.

The scramble for first word on the death of a pope can go terribly wrong. It happened in 1958, when several reporters paid Pope Pius XII's personal physician for information about his death to try to scoop the competition.

"It was a hilarious episode because the signal that was arranged was that (the doctor) would open a window to the pope's room and that would be their signal to rush to press," Pham said. "Instead, one of the monsignors threw the window open to let some air in, and three Italian newspapers ended up running black-bordered editions announcing the death."

Pius XII succumbed the following day.