Transcript

The successor to Saint Peter, the Vicar of Christ, and the head of the Catholic Church has just passed into his eternal reward.

What happens now?

When the pope dies, the first thing to do is to verify that he is actually dead.

This task is taken on by a specifically selected cardinal called the camerlengo, who is appointed as administrator during the sedevacante, which is the time when the Chair of Peter is vacant.

To verify the pope's death, classically, the camerlengo drew a ceremonial silver hammer and taps the pope three times on his head, calling to him in his baptismal name and childhood name.

The process is, of course, different today, with a doctor likely standing by, but the responsibility of confirming the pope's death still rests with the camerlengo, who is witnessed by a few other clerics.

With the pope's death confirmed and until a new pope is selected, we are in a period known as the interregnum.

At the outset of the interregnum, nearly every high-ranking cleric of the Holy See immediately loses their job.

This is because, somewhat like how a new president of the United States must select a new presidential cabinet during their time in office, the new pontiff will select new members of their own governing body, the Roman Curia.

During the interregnum, the cardinal vicar of Rome, the major penitentiary, head of the apostolic penitentiary, and the apostolic nuncios are the only officials to remain in power, with the camerlengo and his office holding temporary stewardship over the Vatican.

The apostolic penitentiary stays in power because its function is essential even during the interregnum, with the penitentiary being responsible for those things like indulgences, questions of conscience, dispensations or issues of excommunication which are submitted to the Holy See and which cannot be dispensed with except by the Holy See.

Like the death of any monarch, after the death of the pope it is paramount that succession be established for a smooth transition, but unlike other monarchs, the new pope must be elected specifically by the College of Cardinals at the conclave, but the conclave is still a ways off with jurisdictional laws establishing that the conclave cannot begin earlier than 15 days after the death of the pope.

First must come a period known as the novendialis.

The novendialis are nine days of Masses and prayers for the Roman pontiff during which people will pay their respects and the dean of the College of Cardinals will celebrate a funeral Mass.

The Mass traditionally includes the Requiem aeternam donum es domine, "Eternal rest grant unto him O Lord," and the hymn in paradisum deducant te angeli, "May the angels lead you to paradise." The pope is normally buried in his characteristic golden miter and exclusive red and gold chasuble.

The popes are generally buried at Saint Peter's Basilica though they can choose to be buried elsewhere, with Pope Francis, for example, making arrangements to be buried at the Basilica of Saint Mary Major due to his devotion to a Byzantine icon of the Blessed Mother called Our Lady Protectress of the Roman People.

With the pope buried and the nine days concluded, the College of Cardinals have a few days to convene in Rome before they elect the next pope.

It's worth noting here that the College of Cardinals as a body is not a single group of indistinguishable bishops who are all a cardinal in the same sense.

Rather, the College of Cardinals is actually divided into three different ranks, which are the cardinal bishops, the cardinal priests, and the cardinal deacons.

You might intuitively assume that these three ranks are filled with bishops, priests, and deacons, the three ranks of holy orders, but you would surprisingly be mistaken as these are totally different.

The names of these three groups are produced from a vestigial connection to the historical sees in the Roman ecclesiastical province, and the cardinals who occupy these roles may officially be given titles as if they were bishops, priests, or deacons within Rome out of tradition for the early days of the church when it was the clerics of the city of Rome itself who elected the pontiff.

Cardinal bishops are of the highest rank within the College of Cardinals.

They include several important bishops including the dean of the College of Cardinals, as well as patriarchs within Eastern Catholicism.

Cardinal priests are the largest body of cardinals including some members of the Roman Curia, the pope's legislative apparatus, and various archbishops.

The lowest order, cardinal deacons, will include other members of the Roman Curia as well as respected theologians who have been elevated to cardinal.

A person in one order can be moved to another, and within their own order they are generally ranked by seniority.

It is from this collegial body the electors for pope are selected.

However, not every cardinal is a cardinal elector.

Since Paul VI, and is upheld by subsequent pontiffs, the duty of voting for pope is dissolved for those cardinals who are 80 years old and above, with the electors coming from those 79 and younger.

Once the cardinals of the three ranks have gathered, the conclave can begin.

The conclave starts with a votive Mass in Saint Peter's, then prayers in the Pauline Chapel of the Apostolic Palace, then to the Sistine Chapel to make a Latin oath to avoid outside influence and follow the laws set forth for deliberation.

Furthermore, the cardinals are sworn to absolute secrecy about the election itself.

As John Paul II emphasized, during the conclave anyone who directly or indirectly could in any way violate secrecy, whether by words or writing, by signs or in any other way, is automatically excommunicated.

Before voting begins, a specially designated priest of sound doctrine and wisdom gives a meditation.

Then the master of papal liturgical ceremonies and the secretary of the College of Cardinals as well as any others who may be assisting and any non-voting cardinals must leave the room.

The master of papal liturgical ceremonies and the secretary of the College of Cardinals are non-cardinal priests or bishops who will assist the voting process in between sessions.

With only voting members remaining, the cardinal dean explains the voting process to the assembled.

The electors are to be given a foldable ballot with the words "Elego in summum pontificem," or "I elect for supreme pontiff," followed by a space to write a name.

They must each write only one name or else their ballot is nullified.

Three electors are randomly chosen to serve as scrutineers who tally these names once they are written.

Three more electors serve as infirmarii who discretely take ballots to sick cardinals who could not be present in person due to infirmity.

Three more electors serve as revisers who check the work of the scrutineers.

If the number of ballots after voting doesn't match the number of electors, the ballots are burned and a new vote is immediately taken.

But otherwise, the three scrutineers each read the ballots one after the other and then puncture them with a needle and thread them together to avoid fraud or error.According to the prescriptions laid out by the previous pontiffs, the first day shall have only one vote, followed by four on the following day and four more on the day after that, giving cardinals the option to revise their answers in the hopes of reaching a consensus.

If no one individual has received a two-thirds majority of the votes after these three days of voting, they take a break for up to one day for prayer and discussion, and a reflection by the senior cardinal in the order of deacons.

This is then followed by seven more ballots over three days, another similar pause with an exhortation by the senior cardinal in the order of priests, then seven more ballots in the same fashion, followed by the same thing, but the senior cardinal in the order of bishops gives an exhortation, then seven more ballots again over three days, which puts us at 26 theoretical votes, assuming there is still no two-thirds majority.

At the 26-vote point for the 2005 papal election, Pope John Paul II's instructions allowed for a suspension of the two-thirds majority in favor of an absolute majority of 50%.

Pope John Paul II may have had in mind elections like the infamous conclave of 1268 to 1271 in Viterbo, where a disgruntled populace ended up locking the cardinals in a building and removing the roof, exposing them to the elements, forcing them to finally choose a papal successor.

However, when Benedict XVI was elected, he reversed John Paul II's ruling so that future elections returned to the two-thirds majority rule.

This was after requests for a reversal from the other cardinals and in continuity with the traditional voting system produced at the Third Lateran Council.

The two-thirds majority system was established to curb the issue of anti-popes by insisting that most cardinals would tolerate the pope who was elected and ensuring that the pope's authority was never weakened by a disgruntled electorate.

Ensuring that the current version of the rules are stuck to consistently is arguably as important or more important than the oath of secrecy about the details of the conclave.

As John Paul II also noted, "Should the election take place in a way other than that prescribed in the present constitution, or should the constitutions laid down here not be observed, the election is for this very reason null and void without any need for a declaration on the matter.

Consequently, it confers no right on the one elected." After a pope is elected, the junior cardinal deacon readmits the master of papal liturgical celebrations and the secretary of the College of Cardinals into the conclave.

Then the cardinal dean or the most senior cardinal will ask the one who has been elected, "Do you accept the canonical election as Supreme Pontiff?" If they say yes, they are asked, "By what name do you wish to be called?" Once the person has accepted their duty, he is immediately the Bishop of Rome and the pope with full rights and powers.

However, because cardinals are not technically required to be bishops, and in fact, the pope himself need not have been a former cardinal, there's a special alternate procedure that states that if the person elected is not a bishop at all, he must be ordained one before being announced as pope to the world.

This is because the role of the pope is always identical to the role of the Bishop of Rome.

Pope Fabian is a great example of someone who fell into this rare category of non-bishop popes because he was elected by popular demand after a dove alighted on his head, even though Fabian was not then a bishop.

After a pope is selected, the electors approach and give homage to the new pope.

The senior cardinal from the cardinal deacons announces the name of the newly elected pope to the people, and the pope imparts the apostolic blessing from the balcony of the Vatican Basilica.

And with that, the world is introduced to the new pope.