chill rhizome: How does the Vatican elect a new pope? 7 things to know about a conclave

Following Pope Benedict XVI?s surprising announcement Monday that he will resign from the papacy on Feb. 28, the first pope to do so in more than 600 years, the Vatican is preparing to elect his successor.

That process will happen in what is termed a ?conclave,? which will be called within 20 days of the German pontiff resigning from office, according to Vatican officials.

But what, exactly, is a conclave? And how does it work? Here are 7 key points:

1. What is a conclave?

It is a meeting of cardinals specifically to choose a new pope. Only cardinals who are under the age of 80 are eligible to vote ? there will be 118 of them in next month?s conclave. The word conclave originates from the Latin cum clavi ? with a key ? because cardinals used to literally be cloistered behind locked doors until they came to a decision.

2. Where is a conclave held?

Conclaves are held in the Sistine Chapel, in the heart of the Vatican. In the past, the process of choosing a new pope could take days, and cardinals had to sleep in the chapel, famous for its frescoes by Michelangelo, Botticelli, and other Renaissance masters.

These days they are permitted to spend the night in a Vatican residence, but they cannot leave the walls of the city-state until a decision is made.

The conclave is held amid tight security ? the chapel is swept for listening devices and cardinals must take a vow of secrecy, promising to reveal nothing to the outside world.

The cardinals are denied access to radio and television and are not allowed to carry in their mobile phones. They are prohibited from talking to the media.

3. How does a conclave work?

Two votes are held each morning and two each afternoon in the Sistine Chapel. Any cardinal can vote for any other cardinal, and then they narrow it down, bit by bit. A two-thirds majority is required before it is decided who will be pope. Benedict?s predecessor, Pope John Paul II, changed the rules during his papacy, so that a simple majority was deemed sufficient if no clear choice had been made after 12 days. But Pope Benedict reverted to the old rules in 2007 ? he feared that a bloc of cardinals might deliberately stall for 12 days and then elect a cardinal with only a slim majority.

4. How are votes cast??

Cardinals write their choice on a ballot paper, then fold up the pieces of paper and walk to the altar. They put the votes into a paten ? the shallow metal plate used to hold communion wafers during mass ? and then slide them into a large chalice.

5. How does the rest of the world know when a new pope has been selected?

The ballots are burned in a stove after every second vote. The smoke from the stove comes out of a special chimney erected on top of the chapel in the days before the conclave starts. Black smoke means no decision has been made. White smoke signals that cardinals have chosen a new pope. The bells of Saint Peter?s Basilica will also ring, to help avoid possible confusion if the color of the smoke is gray. In times past, damp straw was added to the stove fire to create dark smoke, but since the 1960s chemicals have been used to create the effect.

6. How is the new pope presented to the world?

The senior deacon of the College of Cardinals, a body that represents all cardinals in the Catholic Church, asks the chosen cardinal if he accepts the decision to become pope. While those chosen are, in theory, free to decline, it doesn?t really happen at this stage in the process because any potential pope elect who doesn?t want the office will state that before he has been given a sufficient number of votes to become pope. Once the chosen answers yes, the senior deacon then steps out onto the balcony of the Vatican and shouts in Latin: "Habemus Papam" ("We have a pope!"). The new pope chooses the name by which he wishes to be called, pulls on his new robes and steps on to the balcony himself. He then gives his first blessing, watched on television by millions of people around the world and huge crowds in Saint Peter?s Square.

7. How much influence will Benedict have over the conclave?

The Vatican says he won?t have any influence. Officials insist he will not interfere or try to sway cardinals in their choice of his successor.

"He will say absolutely nothing about the process. He is a very discreet person,? Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, said on Tuesday. ?You can be sure the cardinals will be autonomous in their decision and he will have no role."

But of the 118 cardinals who will vote, 67 were appointed by Benedict during his eight-year papacy.

That will ensure that he has indirect influence on the choice of the new pontiff, Vatican experts say.

The fact that he will continue to live and work in the Vatican after his resignation will also cast a shadow over the cardinals as they discuss who to choose as pope in the conclave.

"These are unchartered waters. We have never had an election in which a former pope was still alive," says Robert Mickens, Vatican correspondent and columnist for The Tablet, an international Catholic weekly newspaper. "By resigning, he has assured that he can have an influence on who becomes his successor. One of his guys is probably going to be elected pope.

"It will be psychologically difficult for the cardinals to vote for someone who wants to take the church in a very different direction than Benedict. They won't feel as free to make their decision as they would have had he died."

chill rhizome

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

How does the Vatican elect a new pope? 7 things to know about a conclave

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