42 Years Ago in Time

The brief conclave last week bore a striking similarity to the selection of POPE PAUL VI some four decades ago.

It was only the second day of voting by the 80 cardinals who had gathered there to name Pope John XXIII's successor. But no one anticipated a long conclave--and the expectations were not wrong. At 11:22, smoke began billowing from the rickety metal chimney that led upward from the Sistine Chapel, where in a ceremonial stove the used ballots were burned. Twice the day before, a few puffs of white had first appeared, but then the smoke had turned a disappointing black--the signal that no Pope had been chosen. This time there was no mistake: the smoke was white--bella bianca. Moments later, the Vatican Radio, which during the 1958 conclave had twice broadcast premature election bulletins, joyfully confirmed the news ... What happened at the brief conclave of 1963 is officially so secret that anyone who tells incurs an automatic excommunication removable only by the Pope. But a secret in Rome often seems to be like a public announcement anywhere else. --TIME, June 28, 1963

Read the entire article at time.com/years