The college of cardinals of the Catholic church gathered in the Vatican in Rome, Italy, and will start the process of electing a new pontiff to replace Pope Francis on Wednesday.
Francis, the 266th pontiff of the church, died on Monday April 21 of Easter, after having directed the church for 12 years.
The vote during the so-called Papal conclave takes place in the Sistine Chapel and is led by secret ballot.
On Wednesday, 133 cardinals will start the process with the traditional holy mass for the election of the Pope (Pro Eligendo Romano Pontera) at 10:00 am local time (0800 GMT) in the Saint-Pétres basilica.
At 10:30 am, they will come together to pray to the litany of the Saints at the Pauline chapel of the Apostolic Palace before going to the Sistine Chapel.
All the voting cardinals, each a potential successor of Francis, take an oath to fulfill the mission of Peter – the first chief of the Catholic Church – known as “Munus Petrinium”, if they were elected.
The so -called master of pontifical liturgical ceremonies, then proclaims the famous Latin words “Extra Omnes” – everyone – instructing those who do not vote to leave the Sistine Chapel immediately.
The preacher emeritus of the Papal Household, Cardinal Raniero Cantalamesa, will then lead a second meditation to which the cardinals and the master of liturgical services attended. The two then leave the chapel, how the sequestrated cardinal voters start the quest to select a new leader between them.
The first voting bulletins will be sunk on Wednesday evening and, except the unlikely event that the conclave produces a winner on the first ballot, the vote will continue four times a day until a new leader is found. Subsequent votes will take place twice every morning and twice each evening until a new pontiff is found.
Famous, the ballots are burned after each voting cycle. The eminent smoke of a special chimney installed in the chapel informs the outside world of the result, the black smoke indicating the failure of the search for a leader and white smoke allowing the world a new pope.
