When Cardinals Luis Antonio Tagle, Jose Advincula, Pablo Virgilio David and nearly all of the 133 cardinal electors swore to keep the conclave proceedings a secret, they used an archaic language that remains the official language of the Church: Latin.
That meant the cardinals also referred to themselves using their names in Latin when, facing Christ’s looming image in Michaelangelo’s “The Last Judgement,” they took their oaths one by one while touching the book of the Gospels:
Et ego (first name) Cardinalis (surname) spondeo, voveo ac iuro. Sic me Deus adiuvet et haec Sancta Dei Evangelia, quae manu mea tango.
Which means: “And I, (first name) Cardinal (surname), so promise, pledge and swear. So help me God and these Holy Gospels which I now touch with my hand.”
Tagle was the third cardinal to take the oath, based on rank. In doing so he settled a minor debate among some Latin aficionados back home: he used “Aloisius Antonius,” not “Ludovicus Antonius.”
It wasn’t the case in the 2013 conclave when, just a few months after being given the red hat, the then archbishop of Manila processed into the Sistine Chapel and addressed himself as “Luis Antonio.”
Some had expected Tagle to use “Ludovicus,” said to be the proper translation of a name originally from Spanish, a romance language that evolved from Latin.
“Aloisius” is the German equivalent. Thus it’s a name he shares with the late Benedict XVI, Cardinal Joseph Alois Ratzinger, who made him a cardinal.
The Vatican’s official gazette, the Acta Apostolicae Sedis, has in fact been using “Aloisius Antonius” for official documents bearing Tagle’s name. He was, at the time of Pope Francis’ death, pro-prefect at the Dicastery for Evangelization, responsible for missionary work.
Advincula’s and David’s Latin first names are more straightforward. It’s “Iosephus” for the archbishop of Manila (he also mentioned Fuerte, his mother’s maiden family name) and “Paulus Vergilius” for the bishop of Kalookan and president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines.
Latin became the official language of Church documents and became enshrined in the liturgical books as Rome became the center of Christianity and St. Jerome’s Vulgate bible was published in the late fourth century.
The church that spread from Rome is sometimes referred to as the “Latin Church,” as distinguished from the Eastern or Oriental churches that have their own rites and languages.
For those waiting for the plume of white smoke to billow out of the Sistine Chapel chimney and the Cardinal Proto-Deacon to emerge out of the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica to proclaim, in Latin, “Habemus Papam,” knowledge of the cardinals’ first names in Latin will be handy.
But there will be a switch to the “accusative case” as the Latin formula of the announcement, in use for the past 600 years, requires a direct object—the name of the new pope.
That’s how church-watchers knew immediately that Cardinals Ratzinger and Bergoglio had been elected pope: they were addressed as “Iosephum” and “Georgium Marium,” respectively. The family names were left as is.
This will be the announcement to be read by the Cardinal Proto-Deacon, Dominique Mamberti: “Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum. Habemus papam. Eminentissimum ac Reverendissimum Dominum, Dominum (first name) Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae Cardinalem (surname) … qui sibi nomen imposuit (papal name).”
In English: “I announce to you a great joy: We have a pope! The Most Eminent and Most Reverend Lord, Lord (first name), Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church (surname), who has imposed on himself the name of (papal name).”
So if it’s Tagle, it will be “Aloisium Antonium.” If it’s David, “Paulum Vergilium.” And if it’s Advincula, “Iosephum,” but that’s a name he shares with eight other cardinals who go by Jose, Joseph, Josef, or Giuseppe.
“Ioannem” will also be suspenseful as there are 10 cardinals named “John.”
A final note: In terms of protocol, cardinals carry the same rank as sovereign princes, so they are addressed by their given name first, followed by the title, and their jurisdiction.
The nobility, from which many cardinals originally came, did not initially use family names, so in modern times, the family names came after the title.
That is why, formally, cardinals are addressed as follows: Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle, Jose Cardinal Advincula, Pablo Virgilio Cardinal David.
