News from Italy
Conclave behind closed doors:
Dance of the Princes
Cardinals, the senior members of the Catholic clergy known as the “princes of the church,” begin voting to elect a new pope in the Sistine Chapel today. The Vatican will cut the phone signal during the conclave to elect the new pope.
The mourning and new Pope election ceremonies and rituals that began with Pope Francis’s death on April 21 have reached their final stages. Following the death of 88-year-old Pope Francis on Easter Monday, the cardinals who were already in Rome or who travelled only short or long distances to arrive are ready for the election to follow. 133 cardinals from across the globe will gather in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel today to begin voting for a new head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.
The College of Cardinals—which will elect the next pope—has 252 members, but only 135 can vote. The Vatican has confirmed that all 133 cardinals expected to participate have arrived in Rome. Only those younger than 80 as of the day of a pope’s death may cast a ballot, and two have said they cannot attend due to ill health. (Another, Angelo Becciu, convicted of fraud and embezzlement in 2022, is not participating.
Theoretically, Church law allows the College of Cardinals to elect any Catholic man to become the next Pope. Still, as has been the case for more than 600 years, one of those cardinal-electors will almost certainly be Francis’s successor.
No phone signal within the tiny city-state
All kinds of precautions have been taken for the vote. The Sistine Chapel has been cleaned for the vote that will start today, and special floor carpets have been brought so that their feet do not slip and fall. A chimney has been installed on the roof of the Sistine Chapel. And all kinds of technical controls have been made to prevent information from leaking from the outside to the inside and from the inside to the outside. The Vatican announced it would cut the phone signal within the tiny city-state during the Conclave to elect a new Pope, but this would not affect St Peter’s Square. Transmission will be deactivated from 3 pm on 7 May and restored after the announcement of the new pontiff.
Each Cardinal will take an oath of secrecy.
Today, the cardinals, wearing their red cloaks, symbolising that they will give their lives for their Church and religion if necessary, will go from their residence in Casa Santa Marta to the Sistine Chapel.
At 10:00 am in St. Peter’s Basilica, all the cardinals will participate in the votive mass “Pro Eligendo Romano Pontifice.” The actual Conclave will begin in the afternoon with the cardinals, who will gather in the Pauline Chapel of the Apostolic Palace. Together, they will go to the Sistine Chapel, where they will swear on the Bible and promise to maintain secrecy. They will hand over their phones at the entrance. Each will take an oath of secrecy.
Extra doors will be locked.
The papal officiant will shout “extra omnes” – “everyone out”. Everyone except the cardinal electors, doctors, and assistants will leave. And the legendary doors will be locked. There will be no speeches or discussions inside the chapel. And the first vote will start today. Then, four votes will be cast each day until one candidate reaches a two-thirds majority.
“I choose as grand pontiff”
A table has been set up for each Cardinal in the chapel. The tables contain only a pen and ballot papers with the words Eligo in Summu pontificem “I choose as grand pontiff) written on them. The cardinals will write their preferred name in a way that is not easily readable, fold the white ballot paper in half, and then stand up and walk to the table where the bronze voting urn is located. Then they will cast their votes into the urn.
Habemus Papam
The ballot papers are counted and recounted before being threaded with a needle, piercing the word eligo, into a bundle. The papers are burned on a stove. If there is no result, chemicals are added to make the smoke black; if there is a successful candidate, the chemicals turn the smoke white. The smoke travels through a flue that leads to a chimney installed on the roof. When white smoke emerges from the chimney, bells will also be rung, signalling to the crowds outside that habemus papam: we have a Pope.
Each day, three scrutineers are chosen by lot from their number, plus three infirmari who collect ballots from any cardinals too sick to come to the Sistine Chapel, and three revisers.
Their days will start with mass. The cardinal electors will break for lunch at about 12.30pm, returning to the chapel in the late afternoon for more rounds of voting. The cardinals will recite vespers together at the end of the day’s proceedings and then return to the Santa Marta guest house for dinner. If there is no result after three days, cardinals can take a rest day for prayer and reflection.
What does the new Pope do?
The Dean of the College of Cardinals asks who has the most votes if he or she wants the position.
“Do you accept your canonical election as supreme pontiff?”
If the candidate with the most votes accepts, he must first decide on the name he will use during his Papacy and represent his mission like a flag.
After the cardinals will pledge obedience to the new Pope.
Then, he is taken into the adjacent Room of Tears, where he changes from his scarlet cardinal’s outfit into a white papal cassock. Usually, small, medium, and large cassocks are made in advance.
The new Pope is led to the central balcony of St Peter’s Basilica to greet the crowds.
How long will the Conclave last?
It could be anything from a few hours to weeks. The longest Conclave in history, in the 13th century, lasted two years and nine months. Since the beginning of the 20th century, most conclaves have lasted two or three days.
Suppose no candidate has secured a two-thirds majority after 13 days of balloting. In that case, a runoff occurs between the top two candidates, but two-thirds of the cardinals’ votes are still needed to become Pope.