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“THE CHURCH IS not the past. It is what we do next.”
These were the words of a fictional Cardinal in the award-winning film Conclave and soon, the real-life event will begin.
But first things first….
Latin is the official language of the Catholic Church and the term conclave is Latin for “locked room”.
A conclave is the gathering of cardinals to elect a new pope, and they are effectively “locked” in the Sistine Chapel until this happens.
The Vatican states that the Sistine Chapel is to “remain an absolutely enclosed area until the conclusion of the election, so that total secrecy may be ensured with regard to everything said or done”.
A papal conclave to elect a new pope typically happens when a pope dies, but on rare occasions, such as with Pope Benedict XVI, it can happen after a pope resigns.
A pope will typically serve as leader of the Church until they die, but Benedict became the first pope in around 600 years to resign in 2013.
When a pope dies (or retires), the papal throne is empty – the Vatican is one of the few absolute monarchies that remain.
“Sede vacante” is a Latin phrase used for this period, which means “the chair is vacant”.
From the time of the papal throne becoming vacant until the beginning of a conclave, no fewer than 15 and no more than 20 full days may elapse.
In his memoir, Hope, Francis remarked that “each time a pope takes ill, the winds of a conclave always feel as if they are blowing”.
And while Francis said the “reality is that even during the days of surgery I never thought of resigning”, he acknowledged that resigning was “always a possibility”.
Cardinals are senior members of the Church clergy who are nominated by the pope and collectively make up the College of Cardinals.
Their greatest responsibility lies in the election of a new pope, but not all cardinals can take part in the conclave.
Only cardinals under the age of 80 at the time of the pope’s death (or resignation) may vote.
There are currently 138 cardinals under the age of 80 and therefore eligible to vote, which would make the next conclave the largest in the history of the Church.
It means that Ireland’s only cardinal, Seán Brady, can’t partake in the conclave as he is 85 years old.
While Brady could technically become pope, it’s an extremely remote possibility given his age.
And though the number of cardinal electors is technically limited to 120, this figure can be surpassed.
Technically, any male baptised Catholic can be elected pope, but the last time a non-cardinal was made pontiff was in 1378.
Cardinals will be summoned to the Vatican and reside in the Santa Marta, a hotel-like building constructed during the reign of Pope John Paul II to house cardinals during a conclave.
On the morning of the first day of the conclave, the cardinals gather in St Peter’s Basilica to celebrate Mass.
In the afternoon, they then come together in the Pauline Chapel, which is separated from the Sistine Chapel by a state hall known as the Sala Regia.
In the Pauline Chapel, they ask for the assistance of the Holy Spirit in electing a new pope and then proceed to the Sistine Chapel where the actual voting takes place.
Once in the Sistine Chapel, the cardinals take an oath to observe the rules of the conclave, which includes cardinals being sworn to secrecy about their deliberations.
They also take an oath to not assist any secular authorities “who might wish to intervene in the election of the Roman pontiff”.
This oath is taken so that there can be “no interference, opposition or any other form of intervention whereby secular authorities” can interfere with the election of a pope.
After the last cardinal takes this oath, the Master of Ceremonies for Vatican Papal Liturgies, Diego Ravelli, announces “Extra omnes”, which is Latin for “everybody out”.
Following this announcement, the only people, bar cardinal electors, who remain are Ravelli and a priest chosen to give a meditation to the cardinals on the seriousness of their duties.
Once the priest delivers a meditation “concerning the grave duty” on the cardinals, both he and Ravelli leave, so that only cardinal electors remain.
And while voting gets underway on the inside, work is underway outside to protect to the integrity and secrecy of the conclave.
This duty falls to the Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church, Irish-born Cardinal Kevin Farrell, and he will be assisted by the Vatican’s Secretariat of State, Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra.
The dean of the College of Cardinals, Italian cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, is on hand to answer any questions cardinals may have around the norms and procedures of the conclave.
Cardinal Re himself cannot partake in the voting, as he is 91 and therefore too old.
In the film Conclave, Ralph Fiennes’ character is the dean of the College of Cardinals.
Once any questions are clarified, cardinals can immediately begin the election process and hold one ballot on the afternoon of the first day.
However, the time in the Sistine Chapel is for prayer and voting in silence, not campaign speeches.
Any negotiations are to take place outside the Sistine Chapel.
During a pope’s lifetime, cardinals are banned from “making plans concerning the election of his successor, or to promise votes, or to make decisions in this regard in private gatherings”.
The penalty imposed for breaking this rule is excommunication from the Church.
The same penalty is imposed on those who seek to take part in “any form of pact, agreement, promise or other commitment which could oblige them to give or deny their vote to a person” during the conclave.
A two-thirds majority is required to elect a new pope - it took around 24 hours and five ballots to elect Francis in 2013.
It can take much longer – the conclave to elect Pope Clement IV took close to three years, from November 1268 to September 1271.
Meanwhile, if cardinals are unable to elect a new pope after three days, the voting sessions can be suspended for a maximum of one day to “allow a pause for prayer and informal discussion among the voters”.
Each cardinal elector writes his choice on paper inscribed with the Latin words: “I elect as supreme pontiff.”
They approach the altar one by one and say: “I call as my witness, Christ the Lord who will be my judge, that my vote is given to the one who, before God, I think should be elected.”
The folded ballot is placed on a round plate and slid into an oval silver-gold urn.
Nine cardinals are chosen by lot for three tasks: three are to be scrutineers of the ballot, three are to collect the votes of those who are sick and unable to be in the Sistine Chapel to vote, and three double-check the counting.
As people who have seen the film Conclave may recall, after all ballots are in, the first scrutineer shakes the urn several times to mix the votes.
The second scrutineer counts the ballots and places them in a second, empty receptacle.
If the number of ballots does not equal the number of electors, they are burned and a second vote is taken immediately.
But if all is good, the votes are tallied in an eye-catching manner that was again captured in the film Conclave.
Sitting at a table in front of the altar, the first scrutineer silently reads the name on a ballot, passes it to the second scrutineer who does likewise, and then passes it to the third scrutineer, who reads the name aloud and writes it down.
The ballot is then pierced with a needle and placed on a thread.
After ballots are counted, they are burned in a stove in the Sistine Chapel – black smoke means no one has achieved the votes needed, while white smoke means we have a new pope.
In the film Conclave, cardinals can be seeing keeping their own tally as the names are called aloud – these too must be burned at the end of voting.
It someone achieves a two-thirds majority, we have a new pope, the ballots are burned, and white smoke billows from the Vatican.
But if no one receives the required two-thirds vote in the balloting on the afternoon of the first day, we get black smoke and the cardinals meet again the next morning.
While one ballot is held on the first day of the papal conclave, four are held on each subsequent day – two in the morning and two in the afternoon.
Those who were told to get out when voting got underway are brought back in and the Cardinal Dean approaches the person who was elected and asks: “Do you accept your canonical election as supreme pontiff?”
When the answer is affirmative, the Cardinal Dean then asks: “By what name do you wish to be called?”
Each cardinal then comes forward in turns and makes an act of homage and obedience to the new pope.
The new pope will be ushered to the “Room of Tears”, a small room within the Sistine Chapel.
It is named so after the previous popes who have shed tears there due to the emotion that comes with being named leader of the Church.
The practical function of the room is to dress the new pope in his papal cassock.
A member of the College of Cardinals will then go to the central balcony of St Peter’s Basilica and announce “Habemus papam”, Latin for “We have a pope”.
Donned in his papal cassock, and with a new papal name, the new pope then steps out onto the balcony as the next leader of the global Catholic Church and delivers his first remarks to the faithful.
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