1922 conclave

A conclave was held from 2 to 6 February 1922 to elect a new pope to succeed Benedict XV, who had died on 22 January. Of the 60 members of the College of Cardinals, all but seven attended. On the fourteenth ballot, the conclave elected Cardinal Achille Ratti, the archbishop of Milan. After accepting his election, he took the name Pius XI. During his first appearance on the main loggia of St. Peter's Basilica, he gave the traditional Urbi et Orbi ("to the city and to the world") blessing to the people in St. Peter's Square, which his predecessors had abstained from since the capture of Rome by Italy in 1870. Four non-European cardinals did not participate in the conclave. Three of them arrived too late, and one did not attempt the journey. Three weeks after his election, Pius XI issued rules extending the time between the death of a pope and the start of the conclave in order to increase the likelihood that cardinals from distant locations could participate in the next conclave.