The conclave to elect the next pope is now underway at the Vatican. The cardinals — the prelates who are just below the pope in the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy — will vote by secret ballot for a successor to Pope Francis until one candidate earns a two-thirds majority.
While we may not know what’s being said during the conclave — it is off limits to outsiders — we do have a pretty good idea what it will look like. During the gathering, the cardinals will follow specific instructions and use several distinctive objects to facilitate the process, many steeped in tradition.
Here’s a look at some of those objects, and the meaning behind them.
Voting Instruments
When the cardinals vote in the Sistine Chapel, they will be sitting in rows of simple wooden tables. At one end of the chapel, a large table is set up for those who run the voting, according to the Universi Dominici Gregis, or U.D.G., one of the documents used to govern the papal transition.
The room also contains voting instruments, including an urn to receive the ballots, a set of wooden balls, and a needle and twine. The urn is used to collect the ballots, rectangular pieces of paper printed with the Latin phrase “Eligo in Summum Pontificem” (“I elect as Supreme Pontiff”).
The ballots contain a space where each cardinal writes in the name of his chosen candidate. The ballots are placed in the urn and are removed for counting after all the cardinals have voted.
The wooden balls are used to keep track of the ballots. The balls have numbers written on them that correspond to the number of cardinals voting in the conclave. As the ballots are being counted, an attendant removes one of the wooden balls for each ballot, to ensure that the number matches the number of cardinals, according to The Catholic Advocate, formerly a newspaper of the Archdiocese of Newark, N.J. If the numbers don’t match, the ballots must be burned without being read and another vote is conducted immediately, according to the U.D.G.
As the ballots are being read, they are pierced with the needle through the word “Eligo” and strung onto the thread, “so that the ballots can be more securely preserved,” according to the U.D.G.
The Oath of Secrecy
The conclave is a secretive institution, and many steps are taken to prevent leaks, including restricting the cardinals’ use of phones, the internet and newspapers.
The members of the College of Cardinals, the body that will elect the pope, must also swear and sign an oath of secrecy, according to the U.D.G. The oath reads, in part: “I will observe absolute and perpetual secrecy with all who are not part of the College of Cardinal electors concerning all matters directly or indirectly related to the ballots cast and their scrutiny for the election of the Supreme Pontiff.”
The cardinals also must promise not to record anything in Vatican City during the time of the election. The punishment for breaking the oath is “automatic” excommunication, according to the oath.
The Stove
The weekend before the conclave began, Vatican workers installed a simple stove in which ballots would be burned in the Sistine Chapel. Fire crews also installed a chimney on the roof of the chapel, where the smoke will leave the building.
After each round of voting, the ballots are mixed with chemicals that, when burned, emit either black or white smoke. Black smoke means that the cardinals have not yet reached the requisite majority; white smoke means that a new pope has been elected and voting is over.
The Seal
At the beginning of the conclave, the Apostolic Palace, which contains the Sistine Chapel, is closed to the public. On Wednesday, members of the Pontifical Swiss Guard placed beaded ropes with the guard’s seal at the entrances to the palace to ensure privacy and maintain secrecy for the cardinals.
The Vatican City government also planned to deactivate cellphone service within its territory for the duration of the conclave, starting on Wednesday afternoon.
The Papal Vestments
After a pope is elected, he is taken to the “Room of Tears,” a small room next to the Sistine Chapel, where he will put on the white papal cassock for the first time. Garments in three sizes are prepared and kept in the room, since no one knows who — or what size — the next pope will be.
The room is known as the “Room of Tears” because there are accounts of previous popes becoming overwhelmed with emotion in the room, and being moved to tears, after their election. After the pope puts on the vestments, he is introduced to the public for the first time.
