As Pius XI's first act as pope, he revived the traditional public blessing from the balcony, "Urbi et Orbi" ("to the city and to the world"), abandoned by his predecessors since the loss of Rome to the Italian state in 1870. This suggested his openness to a rapprochement with the government of Italy. Less than a month later, considering that all four cardinals from the Western Hemisphere had been unable to participate in his election, he issued "Cum proxime" to allow the College of Cardinals to delay the start of a conclave for as long as eighteen days following the death of a pope.