How the Papal conclave will choose a new pope after the death of Pope Francis Blogging Sole

The reign of Pope Francis is finished, and while the Catholic Church is crying His deathHe also turns to the future. Shortly after Saturday funeralA PAPAL CONCLAVE Must be held To choose his successor, and the question now turns to What a man – And it will be a man, because women cannot be ordered from the priests of the Catholic Church – will emerge and go up on the balcony in papal insignia to greet the crowd massaged on Saint -Pierre square in the Vatican.

You will find below an overview of the conclave process, with a step by step ventilation of the way in which the next pope will be chosen and anointed under the emblematic fresco of Michelangelo on the ceiling of the Vatican Sistine Chapel.

What is the Papal conclave, exactly?

The Papal conclave is the closely kept gathering of cardinal voters – all serving the cardinals under the age of 80 – to elect the next Pope.

The exact number varies, but there are currently about 135 cardinal voters who will meet in the Vatican around the world to choose the successor to Pope Francis.

Among the eligible people this time, a large majority – 108 of them – were appointed by Pope Francis During its 12 -year papacy. They come from 71 different countries; 10 come from the United States.

When will the Papal conclave start?

The Vatican has not yet announced the date of the start of the conclave, but according to the rules of the church, it must be within 15 to 20 days following the death of the Pope, which in this case would fall in the first or second week of May.

How does the Papal conclave work?

How this assembly proceeds to choose from the next Pope is a process that dates back hundreds of years – a complex and choreographed procession of rituals and ballots.

On the first day of the Papal Conclave, cardinal voters will close from the outside world and start the important task of choosing – probably among their own ranks – the man who will become the 267th bishop of Rome, better known as Pope.

The first day, the cardinals celebrate a morning mass in the Saint-Pierre basilica. In the afternoon, they walk in a solemn procession in the Sistine Chapel, which will have undergone a security scan to check any illegal recording device before their arrival.

For centuries, cardinal voters were physically locked up inside the Sistine chapel until they elect a new pontiff, let eat and sleep under the lively masterpiece of the rebirth of Michelangelo. These days, they leave to rest and share meals in Santa Marta House – a hotel type residence inside the Vatican city where Francis had his own personal apartment during his pontificate – while many days make them a decision.

Once the cardinals have all deposited in the chapel, its large bronze doors are radically closed and sealed, and the first voting day begins.

How does the vote work for a new pope?

Cardinals will have already discussed the merits of each papal perspective during the days of “general congregations” in the Vatican before the conclave, but now the vote begins. The choice of the new pope requires not only a majority, but a vote of two more thirds among cardinal voters so that a candidate can win. Pope Benedict XVI, who directed the church before Francisnoted the threshold and devoted the requirement of two thirds in church law two days before resigning.

Each cardinal must take an oath of absolute secret before voting. If they disclose information inside the conclave, they will be excommunicated by the church.

To vote, each cardinal writes the name of their candidate chosen on a ballot, disguising his writing, then heads for an altar at the front of the chapel and drops the paper on a plate of ceremonies. He then tips the plate of the plate in a chalice.

As they are counted and the handwritten entries recorded by three cardinals at the altar, known as scrotters, the ballots are deposited in another urn.

A third urn, made of gilded bronze and silver and decorated with Christian images, is used to transport ballots of all the cardinals too sick to leave their dormitory to the chapel to count.

After the first vote on the first afternoon, the cardinal voting bulletins were placed in one of the two small ovens inside the sixtine and burned chapel. A plume of smoke flows a fireplace and in the air on Saint-Pierre square, looking impatiently by the faithful and the media of the world.

If this voting series gives no winner, the smoke will be black – a sign for the world that the Holy See remains vacant.

How long can a conclave last?

The voting process will be repeated the next day, the cardinals holding two voting bulletins in the morning and two in the afternoon. If the morning sessions are not conclusive, the black smoke will be revised towards lunch time – early in the morning on the east coast of the United States.

If there is still no winner after the afternoon votes, no more black smoke will extend in the Roman sky at the beginning of the evening.

If there are not two thirds of the majority after three days, the vote is interrupted for a day to allow prayer time, discussion and a “brief spiritual exhortation” by the main cardinal in the order of deacons.

Then the voting process resumes. A conclave will last until enough cardinal voters agree on a choice for the next Pope.

How long did it take to choose a new pope in the past?

The longest conclave in history was the one who brought Pope Gregory X to the papacy in 1281. This lasted almost three years from the moment the cardinals began to vote.

Recent conclaves, however, only lasted days. Pope John Paul II needed eight voting bulletins over two days to become the pontiff in 1978. His successor, Benedict XVI, was chosen during the fourth ballot, after two days, in 2005.

Francis, in 2013, only needed five ballots, the vote taking only 24 hours.

What will happen once the conclave chooses the next pope?

When enough cardinals agree on a candidate and the vote reaches the two -thirds threshold, the man chosen is invited to accept the role. He will simply recognize by saying the word for “I accept” in Latin: “Accepto”.

At this stage, he becomes the new pope and will indicate his pontifical name chosen before the assembled cardinals. The most common papal name has been John, used 21 times. Others, including Simplicius, Hilarius and Zosimus, have never been used only once. Pope Francis was also the first to choose his papal name.

Voting bulletins are then burned in the stove, but this time, a chemical additive is left out to create the highly anticipated plume of “Fumata Bianca”, White Smoke.

There was confusion during certain conclaves spent on the color of the smoke which rises on the chapel, so there are two conclaves, in 2005, a new tradition began. In addition to white smoke, Bells is now chilled, announcing the news that the Roman Catholic Church has a new leader.

The new pope then immediately entered a room adjacent to the Sistine Chapel to be dressed in papal dresses.

As faithful and the curious crowd on Saint-Pierre square below, the deacon Cardinal comes out on the central balcony of the Saint-Pierre basilica to present the new pontiff with the famous sentence, “Habemus papa”-we have a pope.

Finally, the new head of the Catholic Church emerges under the spotlight to deliver his first blessing.