Cardinal Sarah no longer in line to announce the next pope

At the conclusion of every conclave, it is the most eagerly awaited announcement: "Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum: habemus papam!"

"I announce to you a great joy: we have a pope!"

That famous phrase, proclaimed from the central loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica, announces to those gathered in the square below and to people throughout the world the name of the man the cardinals have just elected to be the next Bishop of Rome and chief pastor of the Universal Church.

And the person who makes that announcement is a senior member in the rank of cardinal-deacons.

“The senior cardinal deacon announces to the waiting people that the election has taken place and proclaims the name of the new pope, who immediately thereafter imparts the apostolic blessing Urbi et Orbi from the balcony of the Vatican Basilica,” says Universi Dominici gregis, the 1996 apostolic constitution “on the vacancy of the Apostolic See and the election of the Roman Pontiff”.

At the last conclave, which elected Pope Francis in 2013, it was the late French Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran who made the announcement.

Cardinals divided into orders

The Church’s cardinals are grouped into three distinct orders: deacons, priests and bishops. There is also a somewhat separate order, that of the cardinal patriarchs.

These orders define rank and protocol within the College of Cardinals.

Cardinal bishops come first, followed by cardinal patriarchs, then cardinal priests and finally cardinal deacons.

Within each category, precedence is determined by the date on which the cardinal received his red hat.

If two cardinals of the same order were created on the same day, the first of the two whose creation as cardinal was announced by the pope comes first.

Currently, the most senior cardinal in the order of deacons, which is known as the “Protodeacon”, is Renato Martino, former president of the now-defunct Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

But when Cardinal Martino lost his voting rights in 2012 as he turned 80, he could no longer fulfill the duties of the Protodeacon during a conclave.

Giuseppe Bertello, the new cardinal-elector Protodeacon

This role-in-waiting, as it were, thus passed to various cardinals who were still under the age of 80. Most recently it fell to Cardinal Robert Sarah, the retired prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship.

He became the most senior cardinal deacon with voting rights on May 19, 2018. And had there been a conclave from that point forward, he would have been the one to announce the new pope to the world.

But that changed this week when Francis “elevated” Sarah and seven other cardinal deacons to the rank of cardinal priests.

The pope did so at a public ordinary consistory on May 3, which was called principally to announce a group of new saints.

As a result of the changes, the new Protodeacon with the right to vote in a conclave is Cardinal Giuseppe Bertello, president of the Governorate of Vatican City State.

A spiritual exhortation in case of a complicated election

But that will change again in November 2022 when the Italian cardinal marks his 80th birthday

At that point the conclave duties of Protodeacon will fall to Cardinal João Braz de Aviz, prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life - unless the Brazilian dies or changes his order.

But exclaiming “Habemus papam” is not the only duty of the cardinal Protodeacon. He also can be called upon for another important task while the conclave is still underway.

"In the event that the cardinal electors find it difficult to agree on the person to be elected, after balloting has been carried out for three days,” says Universi Dominici gregis, "voting is to be suspended for a maximum of one day in order to allow a pause for prayer, informal discussion among the voters, and a brief spiritual exhortation given by the senior cardinal in the order of deacons."

For now that cardinal is the 78-year-old Giuseppe Bertello.