The Papal Inauguration Mass is a liturgical service of the Catholic Church (officiated with elements of both the Latin Rite and Eastern Rite) for the ecclesiastical investiture of the Pope. It replaced the millennium-old Papal Coronation after coronations fell out of favour as a form of papal inauguration after the Second Vatican Council.
Pope Paul VI, the last Pope to be crowned or use a Papal Tiara, abandoned the usage of the tiara in a ceremony at the end of the Council, and gave his personal tiara to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in the City of Washington as a gift to the Catholics of the United States. However more than 20 other tiaras remain in the Vatican (one is still used to symbolically crown a statue of Saint Peter on his saint's day every year). The first pope to receive an inauguration instead of coronation was Pope John Paul I.
Pope John Paul I at the first papal inauguration, in September 1978. He is seen with Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future
Pope Benedict XVI
The Replacement of the Coronation
He may have decided not to wear his own personal tiara, but Paul VI's 1975 Apostolic Constitution explicitly required that his successor be crowned. Following the election of Pope John Paul I in the August 1978 conclave, initial media reports spoke of a standard papal coronation taking place. However the new pope , in the face of considerable Vatican opposition, wanted the ceremony replaced. He was supported by Virgilius Noe, the Papal Master of Ceremonies, and one of the most controversial innovators of new liturgy after Vatican II. (In the early 2000s, when Pope John Paul II decided to allow Tridentine Masses to be celebrated more frequently, including in St. Peter's Basilica - he also celebrated them himself in his private chapel - the then Cardinal Noe managed successfully to stop Tridentine Masses from being allowed on the main High Altar.) Noe designed the new inauguration Mass along ideas suggested by the new pope, who had requested a low key ceremony.
His successor, Pope John Paul II, to some extent obliged by the atmosphere of mourning after John Paul I's sudden death, followed suit, maintaining the changes made by his predecessor, though with some ritualistic additions, some of which echoed the former coronations. He requested his mass of Inauguration to be celebrated in the morning rather than in the evening like that of John Paul I, so as not to disrupt coverage of an Italian football match on RAI in the afternoon. In his inauguration homily however he spoke of October 1978, so soon after the sudden death, as being "not the time" to return to the coronation, while dismissing the principal justification given for abandoning both the coronation and the Papal Tiara, the suggestion that their use suggested a claim by popes to temporal jurisdiction.
In his 1996 Apostolic Constitution, John Paul II required that some "solemn ceremony of the inauguration of a pontificate" take place, but did not specify whether the ceremony inaugurating (ie, symbolically marking the beginning of) a pontificate should be a full Papal Inauguration or a traditional Papal Coronation. He left it open to each pope to decide which rite of inauguration they wished to use.
The Inauguration
The modern Papal Inauguration, based though not exactly modelled on the form used for John Paul I, takes place during Mass (usually in the piazza outside Saint Peter's Basilica) and involves the formal bestowal of the pallium, the symbol of the pope's universal jurisdiction, on the newly elected pope by the senior Cardinal Deacon.
Three popes have used the inauguration ceremony: Pope John Paul I, Pope John Paul II, (both in 1978) and Pope Benedict XVI (2005).
Pope Benedict XVI maintained those changes and introduced yet another one: the oath of obedience, which the cardinals would have made one at a time during the Mass, was anticipated and only a symbolic oath was made during the ceremony, as it is explained below.
The modern ceremony does not include a Papal Oath, claimed by some traditionalist Catholics to have been sworn by popes before John Paul I. Conservatives criticised its absence, with some sedevacantist groups refusing to accept the legitimacy of the modern popes due to the absence of both the oath and the symbolic tiara.
Inauguration of Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI was formally inaugurated as Supreme Pontiff on April 24, 2005. The day after his election, Benedict approved new procedures for the inauguration. The ceremony began with Benedict and the Cardinals kneeling at the tomb of Saint Peter — considered the first Pope — to give him homage. Benedict said, "I leave from where the Apostle arrived." The Pope and the Cardinals then processed out to Saint Peter's Square for the Inauguration Mass.
Receiving the Pallium
The Holy Father then received the pallium and the Ring of the Fisherman. His pallium is 2.6 yards (2.4 metres) long, and is made of wool with black silk tips. Instead of six black crosses that other Bishop's palliums have, Benedict's pallium has five embroidered red silk crosses. There are three pins in three of the crosses to symbolize the three nails driven into Christ at His Crucifixion.
Benedict's pallium is different to that of his predecessor, he reverted to an earlier form of the pallium practically identical to the ancient omophorion. It is wider than the standard pallium although not as wide as the modern omophorion.
Swearing obedience to the pope
Not all the Cardinals knelt before Benedict to swear loyalty to him, since they already did so right after his election. Instead, a group of twelve serving different roles in the church knelt before Benedict to swear obedience: the senior Cardinal Bishop, the senior Cardinal Priest, the senior Cardinal Deacon, the bishop of Benedict's former suburbicarian diocese of Velletri-Segni, the priest serving as pastor of Benedict's former titular church when he was a Cardinal Priest, a deacon, a religious brother, a Benedictine nun, a married couple from Korea, and a young woman from Sri Lanka and young man from the Democratic Republic of the Congo who had been recently confirmed.
New Vatican dress code
One change was made to the previous dresscode followed for inaugurations. While in the past diplomatic attendees, including heads of state and government as well as ambassadors, were required to wear evening dress (white tie and tails, and silk top hat), matching the usual dress codes for formal Vatican ceremonies, Benedict XVI allowed visiting dignitaries to wear lounge suits.
After the ceremony
After Mass, Benedict greeted various delegations present for his Inauguration. In the days following his inauguration he visited the other major basilicas of Rome. The day after his inauguration at St. Peters, he paid homage to the other founder of the church of Rome by visiting St. Paul Outside the Walls. Then on May 7 he took possession of St. John Lateran —his cathedral church. Later that evening Benedict visited the Salus Populi Romani icon of Mary in the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore.
The future of the Inauguration Ceremony
More conservative members of the Roman Catholic Church have openly requested the return of the tradition of crowning popes. Traditionalist Catholicss, whether sedevacantist or not, consider the absence of the Coronation and purported Oath to be particularly wrong.
Pope John Paul's 1996 Apostolic Constitution leaves it open to future popes to choose, if they wish, to return to the rite of Papal Coronation. But with the current emphasis on making the Church a simpler and less regal institution, it remains to be seen if any future Popes would use the Papal Coronation ceremony, whether they will be crowned in a new style papal coronation modelled on the Inauguration Mass, or whether the tiara-less Inauguration Mass, as celebrated twice in 1978 and again in 2005 is here to stay.
It is worth noting that, while the ritual of inauguration used for the installation of Popes John Paul I and John Paul II was a provisional, ad hoc, rite, the one used for Pope Benedict XVI was not. That is due to the fact that the Office of Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff had prepared, under Pope John Paul II, a draft version of a permanent rite, with a view to it being submitted for revision and eventual approval as a definitive ordo by John Paul II's successor. Pope Benedict gave his approval to this new rite on April 20th, 2005, and accordingly it was published as an official liturgical book of the Church, with the name Ordo Rituum Pro Ministerii Petrini Initio Romae Episcopi (Order of the Rite for the Beginning of the Petrine Ministry of the Bishop of Rome). This new ordo is intended to be a permanent version of the rite of inauguration, and its promulgation was described by the Papal Master of Ceremonies, Bishop Piero Marini, in a press conference he granted days before Pope Benedict's inauguration, as part of the liturgical reforms that followed the Second Vatican Council, now applied to strictly papal rites. Of course Popes can decree changes to liturgical rites previously approved, so that, should a future Pope decide to reinstate the Coronation ceremony, it would only require a change in the ordo approved by Pope Benedict XVI.
The Ordo Rituum Pro Ministerii Petrini Initio Romae Episcopi approved in 2005 contains not only the rite of the Inauguration Mass proper, but also the ritual that is to be followed for the traditional Mass of inthronization of the new Pope in the Catherdra Romana of the Lateran Basilica, that is considered Rome's cathedral and the world's first Basilica, even ranking above the Vatican Basilica. Popes usually take possession of the Lateran Basilica within a few days of the inauguration or coronation ceremony. Pope Benedict XVI took possession of the Lateran Basilica, and was enthroned therein, on May 7th, 2005. This rite, known as incathedratio, is the last ceremony marking the accession of a new Supreme Pontiff.