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LAST UPDATE | 28 Apr
THE CONCLAVE TO elect a new Pope will begin on Wednesday 7 May, The Holy See has confirmed.
A total of 190 cardinals met in The Vatican this morning discuss a date for the conclave to elect a new Pope. It was initially speculated that cardinals would meet for the secret ballot on Monday, following the end of a nine-day mourning period for Pope Francis.
It has since been confirmed that the cardinals agreed to hold the first ballot on Wednesday 7 May. The highly secretive vote will be held in the Sistine Chapel in The Vatican and follows strict rules and ceremonial procedures.
There are four votes per day – two in the morning and two in the afternoon – until one candidate secures a two-thirds majority. The process could take several days, or potentially longer.
Fewer than half of those eligible to vote are European and there are few clues around the potential identity of the next Pontiff.
All 252 cardinals were called to Rome following the death of Pope Francis on 21 April but just 135 of the group are under 80 and therefore are eligible to vote. Around 100 of those electors were present for today’s meeting, the Vatican said today.
Many of them are newly appointed and do not know each other but they have had four meetings in the last week to get better acquainted.
Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti, 83, a former head of the Italian bishops’ conference, told Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper that there was a “beautiful, fraternal atmosphere” at the meetings.
He added: “Of course, there may be some difficulties because the voters have never been so numerous and not everyone knows each other.”
Speaking to The Journal at The Vatican last week, the Archbishop of Dublin Dermot Farrell – who is not a cardinal – said he believes the next Pope will be selected on the basis of faith, not politics.
Archbishop Farrell said: “I think they’ll be thinking of the worldwide church, and that we are a worldwide church that embraces the whole world, all the continents, north, south, east and west.”
“When you begin to think in terms of Africa or Europe or America, you’re thinking politics rather than faith, and this is really a faith decision.
“It’s made in prayer. That’s what’s going to be uppermost in the minds of the Cardinals when they come to make a final selection,” he added.
Central African Republic cardinal Dieudonne Nzapalainga echoed this belief when speaking to Italian newspaper Il Messaggero today. He said that a courageous, bold Pope must be selected on the basis of what he proposes to the cardinals.
“The future pope must have a universal heart, love all the continents. We must not look at colour, at origin, but at what is proposed.”
He added: “We need a courageous leader, a bold one, capable of speaking forcefully, of holding the helm of the Church steady even in storms… offering stability in an era of great uncertainty.”
Francis was considered an outsider when he was selected in 2013, proving to be a surprise to the wider Catholic church clergymen and leaders. His pontificate left a lasting impression on the faithful and on the shape of the conclave.
One Italian visiting Rome this morning, 68-year-old Patrizia Spotti, told the AFP News Agency that she hoped the new pontiff “will be a pope like Francis”.
Spanish Cardinal Jose Cobo told El Pais newspaper yesterday: “I believe that if Francis has been the pope of surprises, this conclave will be too, as it is not at all predictable.”
The moment the cardinals and bishops began to depart Pope Francis’s funeral to applause from those gathered as he made his way to Santa Maria Maggiore pic.twitter.com/xahccxZCi5
— Diarmuid Pepper (@Diarmuid_9) April 26, 2025
Francis was laid to rest on Saturday with a funeral and burial ceremony that drew 400,000 people to St Peter’s Square and beyond.
Vast crowds also gathered on Sunday to view his marble tomb in the Santa Maria Maggiore Basilica in Rome, after the “pope of the poor” opted to be buried outside the Vatican’s walls.
- © AFP 2025, with reporting by Muiris Ó Cearbhaill
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