By Tom Deignan

For the last week or so, the media has been busy explaining the intricate and, of course, highly secretive process by which the next pope will be selected.

There has been much talk of the “ancient” process, and the many traditions which must be followed.

Of course, this is not entirely accurate. In fact, Pope John Paul II himself had changed a number of rules about the process of papal succession.

Watching this entire spectacle unfold also calls to mind a small episode from early in the 20th century involving the election of another pope. This episode, when all was said and done, led to the alteration of a significant rule regarding papal elections.

More broadly, it gave Irish American Catholics a chance to vent their frustration, at a time when they were becoming increasingly powerful politically.

But, this episode also reminded American Catholics that then — and, one could argue, now as well — they are not nearly as important as Europe when it comes to global Catholicism.

The year was 1922. Pope Benedict XV had just died. Then, as now, cardinals from around the world gathered to select a new pope.

The surprise choice would be Pope Pius XI, born Achille Ratti and made a cardinal and archbishop of Milan just two years earlier in 1920.

Pius’ later relationships with Mussolini as well as Hitler would be the source of much controversy. But before all that there was Pius’ election itself.

Not only was Ratti’s selection as pope a surprise, it was also swift. How swift? Well, as several newspapers, including The New York Times recently noted, William Henry Cardinal O’Connell, Boston’s powerful archbishop, heard about the election as he was still making his way to Rome.

O’Connell was the youngest of 11 children, whose parents came to Massachusetts from Meath and Cavan. Back then, cardinals were told to take 10 days to hold their “general congregations.” These are the deliberations going on right now, and the required start of the process which will eventually lead to the selection of a new pope.

Of course, back in 1922, world travel was not quite as easy as it is now. Archbishop O’Connell — and the small contingent of American cardinals required to be in Rome within 10 days — would have had a tough time making plans, and then actually traveling.

O’Connell, for one, took a steamship to the Vatican. It took more than a week, and he was not pleased to find out that the cardinals were not in need of his assistance.

The American Catholic leadership, back then, almost exclusively Irish, voiced a general displeasure at being taken for granted. It was, clearly, a time of contradictions for Irish Catholics in the U.S.

True, the Al Smith debacle lay six years in the future. No way, yet, could a Catholic be elected president of this heavily Protestant nation.

Still, Irish Catholics had come a long way by the 1920s. They had been running major cities for decades, and a major part off their identity — and one which many thought to be responsible for their success — was their religion. They had enough to deal with when it came to lingering bigotry here in the U.S.

And yet, here was the global leadership of the Catholic church saying, essentially, “Don’t worry if you can’t get to us within 10 days to select a new pope. We don’t need your vote. We’ll get on quite fine without you.”

In the short run Archbishop O’Connell and America’s Catholic leadership got some satisfaction. As has been pointed out many times in recent days, cardinals now take “15 to 20” days for general deliberations before the voting process begins.

The irony, of course, is that it is a lot easier today to travel the world in a matter of hours, much less days. So the extra time is not really needed.

The other interesting thing, though, is this — speculation has it that the next pope will be an Italian (a safe choice) or a candidate from Africa or Latin America (the risky choice).

Obviously, there’s no mention of anyone from North America. So, it seems Irish Catholics in the U.S. still fit quite uneasily in the global family of the Catholic church.

(Contact Sidewalks at tomdeignan@earthlink.net.)