The Papal Conclave, the secret electoral process to elect the next leader of the Roman Catholic Church, begins on Wednesday, bringing the cardinals around the world to select the 267th Pope.
Since the death of Pope Francis on April 21, a total of 220 cardinals – the highest clergy of the church – have gathered in Rome to cry the loss of the old pontiff and start the secret conclave.
Overall, 133 cardinals will vote during the conclave, the most voters of all time, including 108 named by Pope Francis. All cardinals under the age of 80 are eligible to participate in the electoral process.
The clouds pass on the Saint-Pierre basilica at the Vatican, May 6, 2025.
Gregorio Borgia / AP
The majority of cardinals come from Europe, including 17 voters from Italy, five from Spain and five from France. There are 16 cardinal voters from North America, including 10 from the United States. In addition, there are four in Central America, 17 of South America, 18 from Africa, 23 of Asia and four of Oceania. Argentina, the country of origin of Francis, has four cardinal voters.
Every 220 cardinals should attend a mass at the Saint-Pierre Basilica on Wednesday morning at around 10 a.m. The voting cardinals will then go to the Pauline chapel, then translate to the Sistine Chapel around 4:30 p.m. local time, where the vote will take place.
Cardinal nations
Google Earth / Vatican.va
All cardinal voters will take an oath of secret before starting to vote twice a day, twice in the morning and twice in the evening. The vote will begin when the master of the ceremony indicates “extra omnes” – or “everyone” – at around 5 pm local time. The vote will continue until two thirds of the cardinals agree on a pope.
Voting bulletins are burned after each vote and the smoke will come from the fireplace which was built at the top of the Sistine Chapel. Black smoke means that a decision has not been made and the vote will continue, while white smoke means that a new holy leader of the church has been confirmed.
A pope could be elected from the first ballot, or the process could continue for days. Since 1831, no conclave has lasted more than four days.
Up to four voting cycles generally take place in one day. If no clear choice has emerged after three days, the ballot was suspended for 24 hours to allow cardinal voters to think. Seven other election cycles then take place, followed by another break, etc.
If no pope is elected after 33 or 34 votes – generally approximately 13 days – then a new rule introduced by Pope Benedict XVI decrees the two main candidates determined by the previous ballots will engage a runoff vote. If the candidates are members of the conclave, they cannot vote in runoff but are present for this. Whatever the candidate who receives the majority of two -thirds necessary, it is the new Pope.
The Sistine Chapel on the eve of the Conclave at the Vatican, on May 6, 2025.
Simone Resoluti / Vatican Media / AFP via Getty Images
Cardinal Jean-Paul Vesco, the Archbishop of Algiers, told ABC News that he would be “unexpected” if the conclave happened on Friday.
Likewise, Cardinal Baghdad, Louis Raphael Sako, reportedly told the Vatican journalists last week that he was waiting for a “short conclave”.
“It will be a short conclave, two, three days,” said Sako, quoted by the Ansa Italian news agency.
When asked if he had an idea of whom he would vote to become the new pope, Sako replied: “I have a very clear idea but I can’t say it.”
The names of the cardinals who seem to be the favorites for the papacy has been swirling since the death of Francis.
Any Catholic male baptized is eligible to take the place of Francis, but the experts said that Pietro Parolin, the secretary of state of the Cardinal, and Luis Tagle, the Archbishop of Manila in the Philippines, are the main contenders.
The civil servants and staff assigned to the conclave take the oath in the Pauline chapel, the first loggia of the Apostolic Palace, Vatican City, on May 5, 2025.
Vatican Media / Epa-Efe / Shutterstock
An American cardinal, Robert Prevost, also began to emerge as overlap, according to Father James Martin, papal contributor to ABC.
Overall, Martin said that the cardinals will seek “someone who is holy, someone who is a good evangelization who can proclaim the gospel and someone who is a good manager”.
“These three things are difficult to find in one person,” said Martin on ABC News Live on Monday.
During the conclave, the recording technology of any kind is prohibited, the technicians checking to ensure that there are no secretly installed bugs or other devices as inside the sixtine chapel or adjacent areas. Cardinal mobile phones will be removed at the start of the conclave and will be returned to them after the election of the new Pope.
Christopher Watson and Phoebe Natanson of ABC News contributed to this report.
