Archbishop Mandorff

Archbishop Mandorff, the Master of Papal Liturgical Celebrations, is one of the officials responsible for the practical and ceremonial conduct of the conclave. Working alongside Monsignor O’Malley and the Dean, Jacopo Baldassare Lomeli, he helps manage the election’s boundaries, responds to an attack that threatens its security, and carries out the formalities by which Vincent Benítez’s election becomes canonical. His role is chiefly institutional, but the crises around the election make its stakes visible: procedure must continue amid danger without surrendering either safety or legitimacy.

Office and Responsibilities

Mandorff is introduced as the Master of Papal Liturgical Celebrations and a member of the small group assigned to supervise the election. At the Casa Santa Marta, he serves with four assistants—two masters of ceremonies and two Augustinian friars attached to the Papal Sacristy—while O’Malley serves as Secretary of the College. Their numbers are strikingly limited beside the spiritual authority being chosen: these officials, Lomeli’s chaplain, and two doctors are the personnel overseeing the election of the world’s most powerful spiritual figure.

Mandorff’s duties combine ceremony with operational control. He is present when the cardinals assemble, oversees assistants who help gather their notes, and participates in the locked-door transition that seals the conclave. His office therefore places him at the point where the election’s formal rules become physical arrangements: doors, staff, movement through the chapel, and the handling of documents.

Security Crisis and the Conclave

When explosions strike during the conclave, Mandorff and O’Malley enter the chapel area with security personnel. Lomeli has gone into the vestibule, where the blast has shattered the windows beside the stove flue and scattered glass across the marble floor. He blocks the armed security men from entering, insisting that no one is injured and that their presence would be sacrilegious. Mandorff approaches with his hands outstretched to ask whether Lomeli is all right, then seeks permission to bring in help.

Four workers enter with brooms and begin clearing a path, while the masters of ceremonies hurry into the chapel to collect the cardinals’ notes. Their speed signals that a decision has been made to evacuate the conclave. In this urgent response, Mandorff’s concern for the immediate hazard is joined to the requirements of the institution: the space must be made safe, and the election’s materials and participants must be managed. Lomeli draws Mandorff and O’Malley close as they confer, a moment of personal contact amid the officials’ effort to restore order.

Mandorff reports that the attack appears to involve both a suicide bomber and a car bomb in Piazza del Risorgimento, a public place near Vatican City. He also relays reports of attacks elsewhere: a shooting during Mass at San Marco Evangelista, a gun attack at the Frauenkirche in Munich, and an explosion at the university in Louvain. The violence is thus not confined to the immediate surroundings of the conclave. When witnesses report that the bomber shouted “Allahu Akbar”, Mandorff conveys the information, but Lomeli cautions O’Malley against reacting emotionally and warns that the events could be interpreted as the start of a religious war.

Rules, Judgment, and Institutional Legitimacy

The attack presents Mandorff with a procedural problem as well as a security emergency. He reminds Lomeli that the conclave is meant to be sequestered from outside events and argues that the cardinal-electors should not receive specific details that might affect their judgment. The electors may already have heard that something happened, but Mandorff distinguishes that general awareness from knowledge of the attacks’ nature and targets. He raises the possibility that the violence is intended to communicate directly with the conclave; if so, disclosing its details could allow external pressure to shape the vote.

This concern complicates the question of whether to suspend the election. O’Malley urges Lomeli to break the conclave, arguing that the Church would understand. Lomeli counters that proceeding after a break could leave the election’s legality in doubt and expose the new Pope’s decisions to challenges from the start of his pontificate. Mandorff’s position does not settle the dilemma, but it makes clear that secrecy is not merely a formality: it is part of the conditions under which the electors are supposed to choose freely. The crisis pits the duty to respond to events against the duty to protect the process from their influence.

Closure and the Election of Benítez

After the cardinals return to the chapel, the broken glass has been cleared and timber is ready to board up the windows. Lomeli nods to Mandorff at the back of the room. Mandorff leaves with O’Malley and the masters of ceremonies, and the key turns in the lock, restoring the conclave’s enclosure. The quiet act of closing the door marks the resumption of the election after an interruption that could have transformed its purpose and course.

Following the vote that elects Benítez, Mandorff and O’Malley are called back into the chapel. Lomeli formally asks the Filipino cardinal whether he accepts his canonical election as Supreme Pontiff. When Benítez accepts and chooses the name Pope Innocent XIV, Lomeli asks Mandorff to bring in witnesses and draw up the deed of acceptance. The document already exists in prepared form; Mandorff need only enter Benítez’s birth name, his pontifical name, and the date before the new Pope signs and witnesses attest to it. His work completes the transition from the electors’ decision to its documented canonical form, while O’Malley’s fixed attention to the deed hints that the formalities may also carry implications not yet resolved in the scene.