A closed bronze door. Drawn shutters. Tolling bells. Somber music. They are all signs that a Pontiff has passed.Over centuries, the most traditional and telling signal that a Pope has died has been the tolling of the Vatican’s bells, which prompts churches across Rome to join in. But there is also the symbolic shutting of the bronze door, a massive portal beneath a portico off St. peter’s Square that is closed when a Pope dies and is kept shut until a new Pontiff is elected.Its modern use is spotty. In 1978, when two Popes died in rapid succession, the tradition was ignored. Under normal circumstances, the bronze door is closed every night at around 8 p.m. and reopened in the morning, making it unsuitable for a nighttime announcement.Pope-watchers also kept a watchful eye on the shutters of the two windows at the side of Pope John Paul II’s third-floor apartment overlooking St. Peter’s Square.Tradition dictates that the Pope’s Vicar for Rome, Cardinal Camillo Ruini, would make a formal announcement to Romans. The Vatican almost certainly would have made an earlier announcement to the media, either via Vatican Radio, which then plays somber music, or the Pope’s spokesman, Joaquin Navarro-Valls, meaning the world would know by the time Ruini read out the news. —PTINew bishops announcedVATICAN CITY: The Vatican announced appointment of a swathe of new bishops and archbishops and four Papal envoys on Friday as Pope John Paul II neared death. The appointments bear the Pope’s signature, made at various times during March before his health deteriorated.The 12 appointments will have no bearing on the election of his successor. —AFP
