Given the challenges, extreme measures have been taken to avoid listening, not only sweeping the Sistine Chapel for insects but close its windows to prevent scanners from detecting the vibrations of the words of cardinals on speeds.
Voters must not only abandon their mobile phones, but are also encouraged to vote using disguised writing. They will stay in the St. Martha house in the shape of a B block, built in the 1990s. But these poorly glamorous and proletarian districts will contrast with the day of the pump and the following ceremony.
At 10 a.m. (4 a.m.) Wednesday, the cardinals will exchange their little zucchettos, or skulls, for the big white mitans woven with damask fabric. And Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, dean of the Cardinals college, will then lead a mass in the Saint-Pierre basilica. In the afternoon, they will carry out the Pauline chapel In the Sistine ChapelFestonneed with the frescoes of Michelangelo, singing the litany of the prayer of saints or the anthem “Veni Creator Spiritus”, as they did in 2013.
In a scene represented in the nominated “conclave” at the Oscars in 2024, Cardinal Diego Giovanni Ravelli, master of the papal liturgical celebrations, will announce “Extra Omnes” – “Everyone” in Latin. All those who are not involved in the ballot, including cardinals over 80 years old, must leave.
The first survey this afternoon is often a chance to sound in the forefront and give votes in tokens to respected friends and colleagues. Which can turn around; In 1334, Cardinal Jacques Fournier, not considered as a serious candidate, was accidentally elected Pope Benoît XII.
Then there are four voices a day, two in the morning and two in the afternoon. After the latest votes in the morning and afternoon, the voting bulletins are burned in an oven specially installed and mixed with a specific compound of chemicals according to the result: black smoke without decision, white for a majority of two thirds and a new pope – “Habemus papam!” (“We have a pope!”).
While some conclaves took hours, they lasted two to three days. Little predict a longest conclave rehearsal, in 1268-1271, in which the city dwellers became so exasperated with the cardinals in the dead end that they locked the doors, snatched the roof and fed the cardinals only bread and water until they make a decision. Hence the term “conclave”, meaning “with key”-that is to say a locking.
This time, favorites among bookmakers like Polymarket are cardinal Pietro Parolin, 70, secretary of state of Francis which is considered a centrist stabilizer. It is also the first choice for some 60,000 players in FantasyOr Fantasy Pope, which reflects sports draft games and allows people to select their 11 best pontiffs most likely.
However, Paroline faced important criticisms on a 2018 agreement which he designed by giving control of the Chinese Communist Party on the appointments of bishops in exchange for greater freedom for the faithful.
Behind him is Cardinal Luis Antonio Gokim Tagle67 years old, from the Philippines, often nicknamed “the Asian Pope François” because he has progressive opinions and defends the poor.
“We would be so happy that he was elected,” said Ida Del Rosario, 72, from Manila, about Tagle. She spoke to NBC News while she was taking selfies with her husband, Rody, 69, outside the basilica during a 12 -day trip to Europe. “It is very modern but very holy – it is capable of mixing these two perspectives.”
Not everyone would be satisfied with these choices.
Bishopaccountability.org, a church guard of the church based in Massachusetts, said on Friday of the Paroline that “no civil servant of the church in the world has played such a central role in maintaining information hidden on sexual crimes within the Vatican”. And he accused Tagle of being “ineffective” of fighting against abuse in his natal Philippines.
In a statement on the same day, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines said that Tagle had pleaded for a church which “acts decisively to protect vulnerable”. NBC News asked for comments from the Vatican.
The other candidates considered to be “papabile” include a conservative favorite, farting Erdő, 72, of Hungary, and Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana, 76, who would be the first African pope in more than 1,500 years.
This can easily become a foreigner game, with a room saying that “the one who enters the Cachet A Pope, releases a cardinal”.
Whether it is the front or less known front, the vaillé cardinals are treated like rock stars and attract excited looks whenever the streets surrounding Saint-Pierre.
“May God bless you and have a good day,” said Cardinal Frank Leo, Archbishop of Toronto, approached by NBC News in the Rome district, a Warren of tracks and trattorias where these eminences, many of whom do not know each other, have been seen for lunch in recent days.
“I really can’t say more right now,” said Leo with a smile and a boost, leaving a group of young types of students open when they had just passed.
Voters will pray for advice, but the choice will finally rest with mortals, Regoli, the professor and priest in Rome.
“There is often a spiritualization,” he said. “But it’s an election like everyone else in the world.”