Sistine Chapel Closes to Tourists: Vatican Sends Signal That Cardinals Are Ready to Elect New Pope As It Shuts Doors to Michaelangelo Masterpiece
By Sara Malm and Nick Pisa
The Vatican today sent the clearest sign yet that a papal election is nearing with the Sistine Chapel announcing it is closing to visitors. As of this afternoon, Michelangelo's frescoed masterpiece will be sealed to tourists as Vatican workers put it into shape for the conclave. In 2005, the last time the College of Cardinals elected a pope, those preparations included installing a false floor to hide anti-bugging devices and attaching the stove, where the ballots are burned, to the Sistine Chapel's chimney. Today the gathered cardinals began a second round of pre-conclave meetings to organize the election process and get to know one another. With a handful of cardinals still travelling to Rome, no date has yet been set. Yesterday an imposter dressed as a cardinal sneaked into the Vatican to try to take part in the talks to elect the next pope - and was only rumbled when security guards noticed his robes were too short. The child abuse protester, calling himself 'Basilius', shook hands with his 'fellow cardinals' and made it as far as the square outside the Paul VI audience hall before he was caught and taken away. The security breach came as 103 real cardinals arrived in Rome to start the meeting that will choose when the pope is elected. The decision will be delayed because 12 cardinals have still not arrived. German born Ralph Napierski was seen shaking hands with unsuspecting Cardinal Sergio Sebiastiana outside the Vatican's Pope Paul VI hall, with several other priests in his entourage who were also thought to be bogus. Alert Swiss Guards rumbled him because his vestments were wrong and because they noticed his purple sash was really a scarf and he was also wearing an odd looking fedora hat, while the other giveaway was the shortness of his black cassock and the crucifix around his neck was on a short chain. Before being spotted Napierski had told reporters his name was Basilius and that he was a member of the non existent Italian Orthodox Church - initially there were reports in the Italian media that he was part of a stunt by Australian TV but this proved false. Napierski also told reporters that the Catholic Church had made ‘serious mistakes’ by allowing priests accused of sex crimes to move to different parishes elsewhere and cover up scandals instead of dealing with them. The imposter has a website in which he claims to be a bishop with a Catholic organisation called Corpus Dei and it shows him dressed in robes and he describes himself as a ‘slave and apostle like St Paul’ although it is littered with spelling mistakes. On You Tube Napierski has also uploaded several videos in which he describes the benefits of the ‘ancient hidden spiritual practice of Jesus Yoga’ and his website goes on to add that he is ‘fighting the heresy and false movements inside the Roman Catholic Church.’ Vatican officials tried to play down the incident with spokesman Father Federico Lombardi saying: ’I'm not aware of this at all - I was inside the hall and all those inside were real cardinals,’ he joked. Although the meetings are underway, all 115 cardinals who can vote must be present before a decision can be made, and while 103 were on hand for today there are still a dozen who have not arrived. Those present have already sworn an oath of secrecy and agreed to send a message to the previous pope, whose resignation has thrown the church into turmoil and unleashed a new wave of scandals. Over the coming days they will discuss the problems of the church and give the cardinals a chance to get to know one another better. Today the cardinals prayed together, chatted over coffee and 13 of them intervened to discuss organizational matters. Among the first orders of business was the oath of secrecy each cardinal made, pledging to maintain 'rigorous secrecy with regard to all matters in any way related to the election of the Roman Pontiff.' The cardinals then agreed to send Benedict XVI a message on behalf of the group; the text was being worked on, the Vatican said. Although the main item on the agenda is setting the date, a final day may not come today as the dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, has said the date won't be finalized until all cardinals have arrived in Rome. The meeting will also cover the time table for procedures preparing for the election, including closing the Sistine Chapel to visitors and getting the Vatican hotel cleared out and de-bugged, lest anyone try to listen in on the secret conversations of the cardinals. The late arrival of the remaining dozen could delay the plan to have the new pope elected during next week, which would see the new church leader officially installed in time for Easter, one of the most important holidays in the Catholic calendar. The Catholic Church hopes the new pontiff so he can preside over the Holy Week ceremonies starting with Palm Sunday on March 24 and culminating in Easter the following Sunday. The list of challenges facing the crisis-hit Church could take weeks to debate, but the Vatican seems keen to have only a week of talks so the 115 cardinal electors - those under 80 - can enter the Sistine Chapel for the conclave. This week's meetings are also a time for the cardinals to size up the undecleared candidates by watching them closely in the debates and checking discreetly with other cardinals about their qualifications. ‘I don't think any of us will go in saying 'this is who I will vote for',’ Boston Cardinal Sean O'Malley said. ‘You're faced with a number of choices.’ Cardinals never reveal publicly who they prefer but several have spoken in interviews of the qualities of an ideal candidate ideal candidate, the most frequently mentioned being an ability to communicate the Catholic faith convincingly. Several strike a note of nostalgia for the charismatic late Pope John Paul after eight years of his shy successor Benedict, who shocked the Catholic world by becoming the first pope in almost 600 years to resign last month. Most cardinals say the new pope could come from outside Europe, but it is not clear if the conclave, which has a slight majority of European cardinals, will break the long-standing tradition of choosing only men from the continent. Meanwhile there was also fresh embarrassment for Pope Emeritus Benedict, after an Italian TV station broadcast claims from sex abuse victims that he had ignored a report ten years ago on a paedophile priest. According to the investigative show Le Iene, the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was informed of sex abuse claims surrounding a priest from Savona in northwest Italy called Father Nello Giraudo. A letter was shown on the programme, dated September 2003 from the then Bishop Domenico Calcagno, who was in charge of the diocese in which Giraudo practiced to Cardinal Ratzinger and it asked for ‘courteous advice’ on how to deal with the allegations surrounding him. In his letter Bishop Calcagno, who is now a cardinal at the Vatican, even suggested that an appropriate course of action would be to distance the under suspicion priest from ‘having contact with children or adolescents’ but it was claimed it went unanswered. Several of Giraudo's victims also described the abuse they suffered at the hands of the priest who was jailed for twelve months last year after plea bargaining to a charge of sexually abusing a 17 year old boy. The victims expressed their anger at the fact Cardinal Ratzinger - who was elected Pope less than two years later in 2005 - did nothing despite his attention being drawn to the priest's behaviour. It is not the first item that the former pope has been accused of dragging his heels over abuse cases - three years ago it was suggested he did the same with a priest also accused of paedophile in his former hometown of Munich. Although it's barely started, the cardinals' meeting has already been marred in scandal with this weekend's shock resignation of Scottish Cardinal O'Brien. Britain's most senior Roman Catholic admitted on Sunday that his ‘sexual conduct’ had ‘fallen below the standards expected of a priest, archbishop and cardinal’. The 74-year-old former archbishop will face a Vatican investigation into his behaviour and could be subjected to further punishment if evidence of wrongdoing is found. Cardinal O'Brien last week resigned as archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh and said he wouldn't participate in the conclave after four men came forward with allegations that he had acted inappropriately with them - the first time a cardinal has stayed away from a conclave because of personal scandal. In Italy, the Vatican is still reeling from the fallout of the scandal over leaked papal documents, and the investigation by three cardinals into who was behind it. Italian news reports have been rife with unsourced reports about the contents of the cardinals' dossier. Even if the reports are false, as the Vatican maintains, the leaks themselves confirmed a fairly high level of dysfunction within the Vatican bureaucracy, with intrigues, turf battles and allegations of corruption, nepotism and cronyism at the highest levels of the church hierarchy. In one of his last audiences before resigning, Benedict met with the three cardinals who prepared the report and decided that their dossier would remain secret. But he gave them the go-ahead to answer cardinals' questions about its contents. However, despite the delay in setting the date – the dress has already been made! The family-owned tailor’s shop which has created the pope’s vestments for two centuries have already put the future Pontiff’s outfits on display. And in a sartorial symbol of the impending transition, a tailor on Monday unveiled three new white set of outfits in three sizes that will be sent to the Vatican for the new pope to wear upon his election. ‘We need to deliver these three garments before the conclave starts because obviously we cannot enter inside the conclave once it starts,’ tailor Lorenzo Gammarelli said Monday. Tucked behind the Pantheon in downtown Rome, the Gammarelli shop has served scores of cardinals and popes since 1798. Pope Pius XII was an exception: he used his family tailor. The display of the robes was one of the first tangible signs that a new pope will soon be elected, given the unusual circumstances that have surrounded the resignation of Benedict XVI. ‘It's always like the first time for me,’ said tailor Teresa Palombini. ‘It's a wonderful feeling and then I wonder who will wear these clothes, who will be the next one?’ As the cardinal’s meetings started, Benedict XVI remained holed up at the papal residence at Castel Gandolfo, his temporary retirement home while cardinals pick his successor. The former Cardinal Ratzinger has said that he plans to live out a life of prayer and meditation while 'hidden to the world'. Some Church scholars worry that if the next pope undoes some of Benedict's policies while his predecessor is still alive, Benedict could act as a lightning rod for conservatives and polarise the Church. When the time comes it will be Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran's job as proto-deacon to announce 'Habemus Papam!' ('We have a pope!') from the balcony overlooking St. Peter's Square after the smoke has snaked up from the Sistine Chapel chimney. After end of Benedict's papacy on Thursday, every department head in the Vatican vacated their job - except for those who are considered crucial for the smooth running of the transition period. Before leaving, Benedict XVI said goodbye to the monsignors, nuns, Vatican staff and Swiss Guards who make up the papal household. The 85-year-old’s Italian air force helicopter circled Rome, passing over the Colosseum to give him a last view of the city. Bells rang out from St Peter’s Basilica and churches all over Rome as he flew overhead. He also sent a final tweet, saying: ‘Thank you for your love and support. May you always experience the joy that comes from putting Christ at the centre of your lives.’
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