Secret is the key word from the papal election. At the end of the afternoon at the end of the afternoon, the cardinals will swear to be silent and barricade themselves in a part of the Vatican. Beware of the one who will leak information! The prying is exposed to excommunication.
Sealed doors, installed partitions, disabled electronic devices, obscured windows … The surroundings of the Sistine Chapel are transformed during the conclave into a real fortress.
>> Details in 7:30 p.m.:
The pontifical guard and the Vatican gendarmerie, they pass the micro-state to the comb, tracing any spy device. Communications and disruption systems of drones also enter the arsenal aimed at defending the confidentiality of the ballot.
Between two election days in the chapel to the famous frescoes of Michelangelo, the “Princes of the Church” are housed in the Sainte-Marthe residence and, for lack of enough places in the latter, in the Santa Marta Vecchia building. The rooms are allocated by drawing. Laïc staff, also held to be secrecy, must ensure their maintenance.
>> Listen to the analysis in Forum of an election between reality and fiction:
Votes and prayers
-The 133 cardinals voters-two of them had to give up for health reasons-vote twice in the morning and twice in the afternoon, in secret ballots. The pope is elected by a qualified two -thirds majority, in this case 89 votes.
After two ballot towers, the bulletins are burned in a stove installed for the occasion. Another stove is used to combust the products to dye the smoke that will escape from the famous little fireplace, in white if a sovereign pontiff has been designated; in black otherwise.
After three days of unsuccessful voting, ecclesiastics mark a break day, dedicated to prayer and discussions. If no pope was elected after 21 rounds, the cardinals can only choose the two names having received the most votes in the previous round.
>> Video explanations:
>> All details on the procedures during the conclave: Absolute secret, codified ritual and burned voting ballots: the conclave program to elect the next pope
