After a reign of just eight years, Pope Benedict XV died on 22 January 1922 of pneumonia. At his death there were 61 members of the College of Cardinals. However, just one day later, Enrique Almaraz Cardinal y Santos , the Archbishop of Toledo , died, leaving a college of 60 cardinals to elect Pope Benedict's successor. 53 of the 60 cardinals assembled in the Sistine Chapel on 2 February.This was the most recent conclave attended by no cardinals from outside Europe,as the overseas cardinals did not arrive until the conclave had ended.

Context

The previous five conclaves had produced a constant tic-tacing between conservatives and liberals, from the conservative Pope Gregory XV in 1831 to the (initially) liberal Pope Pius IX. By the time of his death in 1878 Pius IX had become a reactionary conservative. He however was succeeded by the liberal Pope Leo XIII who, on his death was succeeded by the populist conservative Pope Pius X. In 1914 the liberal Benedict XV, a protegé of the cardinal vetoed as pope in 1903, Mariano Cardinal Rampolla del Tindaro, was elected. The question many asked was: from which side would the new pope come this time?

Conclave - election of the Archbishop of Milan

Pope Pius XI wearing the 1871 Belgian Papal Tiara

The 1922 conclave was the most divided conclave in many years. While two of the previous three conclaves had lasted three days or less,the 1922 conclave lasted for five days. It took fourteen ballots for Achille Cardinal Ratti, the Archbishop of Milan, to reach the two-thirds majority needed for election.

Aftermath

Ratti himself was less easy to categorise in terms of the conservative/liberal divide than most of his immediate predecessors. Most regarded him as a moderate conservative, to the right of Pope Benedict but to the left of Popes Gregory XV, Pius IX (at the end of his reign) and Pius X. He was also strikingly different to his predecessor. Whereas Benedict was in poor health and effete, Ratti was an unusual combination of a scholar, librarian, diplomat and talented mounted climber.

In other eras Pius XI would count as a major pope. However he had the misfortune in the twentieth century of competing for historic profile with a number of high profile pope; Pius X, who was canonised, Pope Pius XII, the controversial pope during the Second World War, the acclaimed Pope John XXIII (later declared 'Blessed'), the theologically controversial Pope Paul VI, Pope John Paul I, famous simply for the shortness of his reign (33 days) and for controversies over his death, and Pope John Paul II, one of the most remarkable popes in Church history, who within hours of his death was being described by many as John Paul the Great. In that context Pope Pius XI has tended to be overlooked and overshadowed, joining his predecessor Benedict XV as one of the twentieth century's "forgotten popes". Pius XI died in 1939, on the eve of the Second World War.

Conclave details

• Arrived late:
  • William Henry Cardinal O'Connell , Archbishop of Boston (United States)
  • Denis Cardinal Dougherty , Archbishop of Philadelphia (United States)
  • Louis-Nazaire Cardinal Bégin , Archbishop of Québec (Canada)

• Absent:
  • José María Martín de Herrera Cardinal y de la Iglesia , Archbishop of Santiago de Compostela (Spain)
  • Lev Skrbensky Cardinal z Hriste , former Archbishop of Olomouc , (Czechoslovakia)
  • Giuseppe Cardinal Prisco , Archbishop of Naples (Italy)
  • Joaquim Arcoverde Cardinal de Albuquerque Cavalcanti , Archbishop of São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)

• Cardinals who participated by country:
  • Italy - 30
  • France - 5
  • Spain - 4
  • Germany - 3
  • Austria - 2
  • England - 2
  • Poland - 2
  • Belgium - 1
  • Holland - 1
  • Hungary - 1
  • Ireland - 1
  • Portugal - 1
  • Total - 53

• Those present included:
  • Vincenzo Cardinal Vannutelli, Bishop of Ostia and Palestrina, Dean of the College of Cardinals
  • Michael Cardinal Logue, Archbishop of Armagh (Primate of All Ireland)
  • Agostino Cardinal Richelmy , Archbishop of Turin , (Italy)
  • Pietro Cardinal Gasparri, Chamberlain of the Holy Roman Church
  • Louis-Henri Cardinal Luçón , Archbishop of Reims (France)
  • Paulin-Pierre Cardinal Andrieu , Archbishop of Bordeaux (France)
  • António Mendes Cardinal Bello , Patriarch of Lisbon (Portugal)
  • Francis Cardinal Bourne , Archbishop of Westminster (head of Catholic Church in England & Wales)
  • Alfonso Maria Cardinal Mistrangelo , Archbishop of Florence (Italy)
  • Pietro Cardinal LaFontaine , Patriarch of Venice (Italy)
  • Louis-Ernest Cardinal Dubois , Archbishop of Paris (France)
  • Aleksander Cardinal Kakowski , Archbishop of Warsaw (Poland)
  • Karl Joseph Cardinal Schulte , Archbishop of Cologne (Germany)
  • Achille Cardinal Ratti, Archbishop of Milan (Italy)

• Reference:Francis A. Burkle-Young, Papal Elections in the Age of Transition 1878-1922 published 2000 by Rowman & Littlefield, ISBN 0739101145