b'HABEMUS PAPAM! (2025)The world waits and watches in THE TWINDEFENDER OFanticipation. News channels are dedicated solely to watching a chimney TOWERS (2001) ALL FAITHS (2024) in Rome, awaiting the moment that white smoke emerges. The image of the Twin Towers brings backLong before the royal ascension, PrinceThe history of the white smoke, which really vivid memories for me of technologyCharles had expressed a keen interest inindicates that the Cardinals have when I first started at HGS. I had movedthe diverse range of faiths within the UK.elected a new successor of St Peter, back to Birmingham and had secured aThe serving monarch traditionally holdsis ancient. In 1274 Pope Gregory X teacher of RS role here from 1st Septemberthe title of Defender of the Faith in theirspecified that the Papal Conclave (the 2001. I had been in quite a modernformal correspondence, a title granted byelection of a new Pope) is to be done comprehensive school in Wiltshire and eachPope Leo X to King Henry VIII in 1521. Thein isolation and with strict secrecy classroom had its own television and videotitle passed through generations of theand thus the tradition was born: white recorder to play VHS cassettes. HGS at themonarchy, symbolising the monarchs rolesmoke to announce that the cardinals time did not have this luxury. I was basedas the authoritative figure of the Church ofhave elected a new Pope.in Room 16, and I had to share a TV andEngland. King Charles III, however, has long video with the whole bottom corridor; toexpressed that he wishes to be known asCrowds gathered and cheered in make it portable it was on a trolley whichDefender of All Faiths, to acknowledge theunison as the white smoke emerged could be pushed from room to room. I hadcountrys religious diversity. at around 5pm on 8th May, earlier this Year 12 General Studies on the afternoon ofThis appreciation by the King met itsyear, paired with the official declaration September 11th 2001, and as the studentscrescendo at his coronation on 6thHabemus Papam!We have a arrived they were telling me that I needed toMay 2024. The coronation of kings andPope! The Papal Conclave this year get the TV and put it on. With no access toqueens in the UK has traditionally beenwas the largest and most diverse of its the internet, no one was sure what was goinga very Christian ceremony. However,kind, echoing the dedication of the late on and we were reliant on texts from familyKing Charles coronation showed anPope Francis, the first South American members. Someone said that New Yorkunprecedented recognition of the religiousPope, to diversifying the Catholic had been hit, but that was all the informationdiversity of the UK. The image aboveChurch. we had. I collected the TV from down theshows a greeting to the new King by faithAll eyes are on Cardinal Robert Prevost, corridor, plugged it in and then persisted toleaders of Buddhism, Sikhism, Hinduism,now Pope Leo XIV, as he becomes the try and tune in the TV. We had no aerial in theJudaism and Islam. new standard-bearer of the Catholic classroom, so we were relying on a portableChurch, following a rich tradition of aerial and I remember walking around partsThis remarkable move closely resonatesPopes dating back to Jesus disciple, of the classroom, repositioning the trolley towith the most recent UK census data ofSt Peter. get the best picture. Eventually the grey lines2021; and our school community offers settled and this image came through. BBCa great insight into the countrys diversityA momentous occasion for the 1.4 was live and we all sat and watched historyof faiths; something to be celebrated,billion Catholics around the world, and unfold in front of our eyes. cherished, and valued. for people of all walks of life alike.Mrs Donoghue Mr Khan Mr Khan17'