Conclave Begins as Catholic World Focuses on Vatican for New Pope

The Catholic world looks to Rome once again on Monday 18th April, as the Conclave, which is the process to elect the new Pope, commences. 115 Cardinals have all gathered and will enter the Sistine Chapel today, and will not be seen again by public eyes until a successor to Pope John Paul II has been found.

The Cardinals represent 52 different countries, and they will hold a special public Mass in the morning in St Peter’s Basilica before they are locked in the Vatican.

It is likely that the process will take at least several days to be completed, and none of the elections in recent times have taken more than five days to be completed. The Cardinals will have a chance to hold an initial vote even as early as Monday afternoon, but it is still not decided if they have chosen to do this yet.

In 1978, it took just three days to elect Pope John Paul II and just eight ballots were cast before the required majority was found amongst the Cardinals.

If they decide not to hold a vote on Monday, they will hold four rounds of voting two in the morning, two in the afternoon on Tuesday and every day until a candidate gets a two-thirds majority - 77 votes. If they remain deadlocked late in the second week of voting, they can vote to change the rules so a winner can be elected with a simple 50% majority of just 58 votes.

The Cardinals are banned from communicating with the outside world, and all mobile phones, newspapers, televisions, radios and internet are strictly forbidden.

The ballot papers are burned in a stove inside the Sistine Chapel with additives to make black smoke visible outside if they are unsuccessful and white when a new pontiff is chosen. In addition, for the first time when the new Pope has been elected the church bells in the Vatican will be rung so that all are clear that a new era in Roman Catholicism has begun.

More than two-thirds of the world’s Roman Catholics are now populated in the developing world, and this has led to rumours and speculation that the new Pope may be chosen from one of these countries.

However, ensuring that people do not think of the Conclave as a simple electioneering process, Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga from Honduras commented, "People think that we are going to vote like in an election. But this is something completely different. We are going to listen to the Lord and listen to the Holy Spirit."