06 May,2025 09:15 PM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
Sistine Chapel on the eve of the conclave in The Vatican. Pic/AFP
The Papal conclave 2025 to elect the next pope will be held on Wednesday, May 7. The next pope is chosen by the cardinals through a voting system.
The cardinals are the senior members of the Church from around the world and only cardinals who are under the age of 80 can vote, they are called cardinal electors.
The voting takes place in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican.
Ahead of the Papal conclave 2025, here's all you need to know about electing the successor of Pope Francis.
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During the conclave, cardinals will gather in the Sistine Chapel to elect a successor to Pope Francis in a highly secretive process and it could take several days, potentially longer, according to the AFP.
- During the conclave, the Sistine Chapel is placed under total lockdown to have complete secrecy in the process.
- There will be 133 cardinal electors in the process after two withdrew for health reasons.
- Ahead of the conclave, they will move into the Santa Marta guesthouse inside the Vatican, where they will stay for the duration, vowing not to communicate with the outside world, record proceedings or reveal its secrets.
- The cardinal electors will on Wednesday take part in a morning mass in St Peter's Basilica at the Vatican.
- Each wearing their scarlet cassock, white rochet, scarlet mozetta (short cape), pectoral cross with red and gold cord and ring, the cardinals then gather in the Pauline Chapel of the Apostolic Palace at 4:15pm (1415 GMT) and invoke the assistance of the Holy Spirit to make their choice, as per the AFP.
- They would the proceed to the Sistine Chapel at around 4:30 pm, where the election will be held.
- The cardinal electors take an oath promising that, if elected, they will conduct the role faithfully and again vowing secrecy.
- The master of ceremonies gives the order "extra omnes" ("everybody out") and all those not permitted to vote leave the Sistine Chapel.
- The masters of ceremonies will distribute ballots to the cardinal electors. Lots are drawn to select three to serve as "scrutineers", three "infirmarii" to collect the votes of cardinals who fall ill and three "revisers" who check the ballot counting by the scrutineers.
- Cardinals are given rectangular ballots inscribed at the top with the words "Eligo in Summum Pontificem" ("I elect as supreme pontiff") and a blank space underneath.
- The electors write down the name of their choice for the next pope, preferably in handwriting which cannot be identified as their own, and fold the ballot paper twice.
- Each cardinal takes turns to walk to the altar, carrying his vote in the air so that it can be clearly seen, and says aloud the following oath: "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," according to the AFP.
- They place their folded paper on a plate, which is used to tip the ballots into a silver urn on the altar, in front of scrutineers.
- The electors then bow and return to their seats.
- Those cardinals unable to walk to the altar hand their vote to a scrutineer, who drops it in the urn for them.
- Once all ballots are collected, scrutineers shake the urn to mix the votes up, transfer them into a second container to check there are the same number of ballots as electors and begin counting them.
- Two scrutineers note down the names while a third reads them aloud, piercing the ballots with a needle through the word "Eligo" and stringing them together.
- The revisers then double-check that the scrutineers have not made any mistakes.
- If no one has secured two-thirds of the votes, there is no winner and the electors move straight on to a second round.
- There are two pairs of votes per day -- morning and afternoon -- until a new pope has been elected.
- The ballots and any handwritten notes made by the cardinals are then destroyed, burnt in a stove in the chapel, which emits black smoke if no pope has been elected and white smoke if the Catholic world has a new pontiff.
- The smoke is turned black or white through the addition of chemicals.
- If voting continues for three days without a winner, there is a day of prayer, reflection and dialogue.
- If after another seven ballots there is no winner, there is another day of pause.
- If the cardinals reach a fourth pause with no result, they can agree to vote only on the two most popular candidates, with the winner requiring a clear majority.
- When a cardinal is elected pope, the masters of ceremonies and other non-electors are brought back into the Sistine Chapel and the cardinal dean asks the winner: "Do you accept your canonical election as Supreme Pontiff?" As soon as he gives his consent, he becomes pope, according to an AFP report.
(with AFP inputs)
