Smoke Signals: The White Smoke of Oct. 26, 1958
What happened 58 years ago today?
Smoke Signals:
The White Conclave Smoke of Oct. 26, 1958
We realize we’ve brought this up a few times before, and we don’t want to beat the topic to death, but there are probably a lot of new readers of our site out there now who may not be aware of what happened 58 years ago today at the conclave that was taking place in Rome to elect a successor to Pope Pius XII.
As happens after the death of every Pope, so too in 1958 the cardinals gathered in the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City to determine who would succeed the late Pius XII, who had died on Oct. 9. The conclave opened on Saturday, Oct. 25. Officially, it ended on Tuesday, Oct. 28 with the election of Cardinal Angelo Roncalli, who took the name “John XXIII”.
Officially.
Anyone who goes to a library to research the conclave — or even does some online newspaper searches, as can easily be done nowadays — will discover that something curious happened on Sunday, Oct. 26, the second day of the conclave …
Signaux de fumée:
La fumée blanche de conclave d'oct. 26, 1958
C'est le Cardinal Siri qui a été élu pape.
Slowly but surely, we are learning more about this. The truth will come out in the wash.