Universi Dominici Gregis is an Apostolic Constitution of the Roman Catholic Church issued by Pope John Paul II on February 22, 1996. It superseded Pope Paul VI's 1975 Apostolic Constitution, Romano Pontifici Eligendo.

Universi Dominici Gregis ('the Lord's whole flock', from the opening statement 'The Shepherd of the Lord's whole flock is the Bishop of the Church of Rome, ..'), subtitled On the Vacancy of the Apostolic See and the Election of the Roman Pontiff, deals with the vacancy of the Chair of St Peter and Bishop of Rome namely the Pope.

The constitution modified or in some cases confirmed the rules for the conclave such that the rules today are as follows:

Contents

• Cardinals must
  
  
  
  be no more than eighty years of age on the day before the death or resignation of the Pope.
• No more than 120 Cardinals may vote.
• A Pope shall be elected by a vote of two-thirds until a total of 33 or 34 votes have taken place.
• Maximum of two votes in the morning and two each afternoon, totaling four votes will be held daily.
• After a total of 33 or 34 ballots depending whether a ballot took place on the afternoon of the first day, an absolute majority of the College of Cardinals may change the election rule; however, no modification can supercede the requirement that a valid election have at least an absolute majority of the votes.

Secrecy

Strict secrecy is to be ensured throughout the process. Anyone violating the security of the Vatican, introducing recording equipment, or communicating with a cardinal elector in any way, risks excommunication. Other penalties are at the discretion of the incoming Pope. Various oaths are also required to be taken by the participants, to ensure that they will act properly.

Previous methods of election

Previously, other

Living quarters of cardinals

Also Universi Dominici Gregis provided that Cardinals would be housed in Domus Sanctae Marthae, a building with dormitory type accommodations built within the Vatican City. Previously Cardinals were housed in improvised accommodations which were often not noted for being particularly comfortable.

Major changes

Three major changes occurred in the new Apostolic Constitution.

• Provision was provided for the election of a pope by an absolute majority in certain circumstances.

• For the first time in centuries cardinals were to be provided with an official set of apartments separate from the Sistine Chapel.

• The method by which a pope symbolically took office was made less specific. Whereas Pope Paul's Romano Pontifici Eligendo explicitly required that the new pope be crowned, the new Apostolic Constitution wrote more ambiguously of the inauguration of the pontificate without spelling out specifically by name whether than inaugurating (ie, formal ceremonial beginning of) the pontificate involves either the old enthronement ceremony, the Papal Coronation or the version used since 1978, the Papal Inauguration. All that is required is that some formal ceremony take place. What form that takes is left up to the discretion of the incoming pope.

2005 papal conclave

The Papal election of 2005 was the first papal election to be held under this system.

External link

• Universi Dominici Gregis

Universi Dominici Gregis Universi Dominici Gregis Universi Dominici Gregis Universi Dominici Gregis