Grammatical case of papal name In announcing the name of the newly elected pontiff, the new pontiff's birth first name is announced in Latin, usually in the
accusative case (e.g.
Carolum,
Iosephum,
Robertum Franciscum), but the new pontiff's surname is announced in the
undeclined form (e.g.
Wojtyła, In the announcement of
Pius XII's election, his regnal name was declined in the accusative,
Regnal number If a papal name is used for the first time, the announcement may or may not use the numeral
Primi ("the First"). In
John Paul I's election, the numeral
Primi was used (Cardinal Protodeacon
Pericle Felici announced the papal name as
Ioannis Pauli Primi) but in Francis's election, no numeral was uttered (Cardinal Protodeacon
Jean-Louis Tauran simply gave the papal name as
Franciscum). The numeral in the papal name if it exists can be omitted if the new regnal name is the same as the one used by the immediate predecessor, as was the case in October 1978, when
John Paul II's regnal name was announced simply as
Ioannis Pauli without the numeral, since his immediate predecessor was John Paul I. It also happened in 1939, when Pius XII's regnal name, following his election, was announced simply as
Pium since his immediate predecessor was
Pius XI.
Other variations During the announcement of Paul VI's election, protodeacon
Alfredo Ottaviani used the conjunction
et (which also means "and") instead of
ac, the word usually used for "and" within the formula (he said
Eminentissimum et reverendissimum instead of
Eminentissimum ac reverendissimum).
Examples The following are examples of how the names were announced as noted on existing videos and recordings. The case and inclusion or exclusion of numeral for the papal names are noted. == Evolution of the formula ==