Papal conclave, October 1978

Coat of arms during the vacancy of the Holy See
Dates and location
14–16 October 1978 Sistine Chapel, Apostolic Palace, Vatican City
Key officials
Dean	Carlo Confalonieri
Sub-Dean	Paolo Marella
Camerlengo	Jean-Marie Villot
Protopriest	Josef Frings
Protodeacon	Pericle Felici
Secretary	Ernesto Civardi
Election
Ballots	8
Elected Pope
Karol Wojtyła (Name taken: John Paul II)
← August 1978 2005 →

The Papal conclave of October 1978 was triggered by the death, after only thirty-three days in office, of Pope John Paul I on 28 September. When the cardinals elected John Paul I on 26 August, they expected he would reign for at least a decade. Instead they found themselves having to elect his successor within six weeks. The conclave to elect John Paul I's successor began on 14 October, and ended two days later, on 16 October, after eight ballots. The cardinals elected Cardinal Karol Wojtyła, then Archbishop of Kraków, as the new pope. Resulting in the most recent Year of Three Popes, he accepted his election and took the pontifical name of John Paul II.

Ten days after the funeral of Pope John Paul I, on 14 October, the doors of the Sistine Chapel were sealed and the conclave commenced. It was divided between two particularly strong candidates for the papacy: Giuseppe Siri, the conservative Archbishop of Genoa, and the liberal Giovanni Benelli, the Archbishop of Florence and a close associate of John Paul I.

Inside the conclave were three non-Cardinals. One was future-Cardinal Donald Wuerl who, as secretary to the frail Cardinal John Wright, was allowed inside the Sistine Chapel to assist him.

Supporters of Benelli were confident that he would be elected. In early ballots, Benelli came within nine votes. But the scale of opposition to both papabili meant that neither was likely to receive the two-thirds plus one needed for election. Among the Italian contingent, Giovanni Colombo was the only viable compromise candidate, but when he started to receive votes, he announced that if elected he would decline to accept the papacy. Cardinal Franz König, the influential and widely respected Archbishop of Vienna, individually suggested to his fellow electors a compromise candidate: the Polish Cardinal Karol Józef Wojtyła, whom König knew and by whom he was highly impressed.