Father Dave answers a question from a listener named Steven about how the Church elects a new pope. Steven asks, “I’m praying for Pope Francis’ health every day, but if he passes away, what are the next steps for electing a new pope?”
Father Dave echoes Steven’s prayers for Pope Francis’ health upon his release from Gemelli hospital in Rome. Father Dave also notes that as we age or face severe illness, it is not morbid to pray for a peaceful death. “As our bodies begin to weaken and fade away, we do absolutely believe in the Resurrection — not only of our soul, but of our bodies,” Father Dave says. “Ultimately, God will bring body and soul together one day with all of our loved ones in the heavenly kingdom.”
While a pope usually leads the global Catholic Church until he passes away, Pope Benedict XVI notably broke this trend when he resigned in 2013. Putting aside this instance, Father Dave discusses some of the rituals and protocols that occur when a pope passes away while leading the Church.
“The first thing obviously is determining indeed that the pope has passed and [Vatican Officials] declaring that officially,” Father Dave says. The next step concerns the Fisherman’s Ring, a symbol of papal authority. “Every pope does have a unique ring, and so when the pope dies, that ring is smashed,” Father Dave continues. “There is even an official type of hammer that is used to smash the ring. Once that has happened, they declare a ‘sede vacante’ which in Latin means a vacant or empty seat. In other words, the throne is empty.”
The next step is preparing the papal funeral, which usually occurs in Saint Peter’s Square. “In our modern era, typically it is about a week to 10ten days from the pope’s death to the papal funeral,” Father Dave says, noting that length of time is both for planning purposes and to give adequate time for those to travel in from around the world. “A lot of the Catholic faithful might want to be a part of the funeral, but it’s important to have the cardinals there. They will start to assemble a few days after that to elect the next pope.”
Father Dave next details the papal conclave, which occurs roughly two to three weeks after the death of a pope. “In order for a cardinal to participate in the conclave, you need to be under 80 years old,” he says, noting that there are currently 252 Cardinals, 136 of whom are under the age of 80 and eligible to vote. “Once they assemble, they all stay at this hotel that on the grounds of the Vatican called the Domus Sanctae Marthae that was designed just to house the cardinals…It’s like having a jury sequestered.”
Guided by the Holy Spirit, the cardinals cast votes for the next pope in the Sistine Chapel. “The only thing they’re doing in there is voting. It’s not like the United States’ Congress, where [lawmakers] talk about passing a bill…It’s not like in the Sistine Chapel, one Cardinal stands up and says, ‘You know, I think Tim would be great.’ So obviously, all the deliberations and discussions [occur outside],” he notes. “We really believe it’s the Holy Spirit that chooses the next successor of Saint Peter through these human instruments of the College of Cardinals.”
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“The cardinals have two sessions, morning and afternoon, and they go back and they eat at the Domus Sanctae Marthae, and they sleep there,” Father Dave continues. “They keep them sequestered…They can’t go to some nice restaurant in Rome, and they’re not supposed to really be in touch with the outside world in terms of media. That tends to hasten the process a little bit too; you don’t want the conclave to drag on for weeks.”
The cardinals cast their votes on written pieces of paper which are then burned after each session, creating black smoke if they have not come to a two-thirds majority vote on a new pope. “They will do that back-and-forth for as long as it takes to come up with the required majority,” Father Dave says. “Once they do elect somebody, they add a little chemical to [the paper] that makes [the cards burn] white smoke.”
“After that, you have a lot of ceremony. The pope chooses his name and then goes off to a little private room to pray. That is where they have standing by several white outfits in different sizes,” he continues. Before the new pope emerges on a balcony in Saint Peter’s Square, Father Dave says, “One of the cardinals comes out, and he will declare ‘Habemus papam,’ which in Latin means ‘We have a pope.’ Remember, we had a ‘sede vacante’ for several weeks now…so what he’s saying is the throne isn’t empty anymore, we now have a pope. So everybody in the crowd gets excited just about that.
The cardinal then announces who the new pope is and what name he will be taking. “After that, everybody goes crazy. The new pope comes out on the balcony, prays, and then we go on,” Father Dave concludes.
