Electing a Pope

In the early years of the Church, the acclamation of the faithful, united with that of the clergy, could canonize a saint or elect a man as bishop — even the bishop of Rome. Unfortunately, this process could be disorderly and was subject to mob manipulation by bad actors.¹ To rectify these significant defects and ensure a process as free as possible to follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit, the Church gradually developed more formal means for these decisions. The first major reform of papal elections took place in 1059, when Pope Nicholas II determined that the cardinal-bishops alone had the right to elect his successor, with the qualification that their decision must be ratified by the other cardinals, the clergy, the people of Rome, and the Holy Roman Emperor.² St. Peter Damian, the famous reforming Benedictine of that time, wrote that the cardinal-bishops do the electing, other clergy give their assent, and the people are able to give their applause.

A century later, Alexander III extended the right of election to all three orders of cardinals, requiring a two-thirds majority for validity. During the interim between the death of the pope and the election of his successor, that is, the state sedes vacans, in which the Chair of St. Peter was empty, chaos could reign in Rome as the people tried to exploit the absence of a spiritual and temporal head of state.³ To expedite a papal election, and to reduce outside influence, Gregory X established the conclave: cardinals were to live behind doors locked with a key (cum clave) until a majority agreed upon a successor to St. Peter.⁴ It followed perhaps the most bizarre and farcical conclave ever to have taken place: the papal election of 1271, when the cardinal-electors, having struggled to decide on a pope for a year and a half because of the influence and interference of external powers, were locked up in the papal palace; the roof was removed, exposing them to the elements, their diet restricted, and the premises surrounded by soldiers. Some cardinals were taken ill as they were left exposed to the elements. Today, only the College of Cardinals possesses the prerogative to elect the sovereign pontiff, in accordance with the particular laws laid out for a conclave.⁵ Cardinal-electors are those below the age of eighty, who are not gravely impeded from participation, although all unimpeded cardinals may take part in the pre-conclave preparatory meetings.⁶

The lead-up to a conclave begins with the vacancy of the Chair of St. Peter (sede vacante), which can occur only in two ways: through a pope’s valid resignation or through his death.⁷ The dean of the College of Cardinals has the responsibility to inform all the cardinals of the death of a pope and to convoke a conclave.⁸ Cardinals outside of Rome are expected to return to the city as soon as possible and take up residence at the Domus Sanctae Marthae, erected by John Paul II for purposes of housing cardinals during a conclave, with rooms chosen by lot. The Sistine Chapel closes around this time, with security measures being taken to ensure that electronic surveillance cannot take place during the election, including jammers for radios and cell phones.

Prior to the conclave, a “general congregation” takes place over the days leading up to the conclave, in which all cardinals are free to participate. They discuss when a conclave is to start and hear interventions by cardinals regarding a variety of matters, such as the present needs of the Church, the state of the Curia and its work, improving the Curia and the Church’s relation to the world, and so on (it was the vision for Church reform that Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio presented during these meetings that was the catalyst for his being elected Pope Francis).

The dean of the College is the ordinary presider over these congregations, and he is to ensure that each cardinal will place his hand on the Gospels and take an oath of fidelity to the rules of the conclave. Cardinals swear to maintain “rigorous secrecy with regard to all matters in any way related to the election of the Roman pontiff or those which, by their very nature, during the vacancy of the Apostolic See, call for the same secrecy.”⁹ Particular congregations also take place, consisting of cardinal-electors only, in which the Papal Camerlengo leads discussions and decisions of lesser matters. At least fifteen full days must elapse before the conclave begins, with a maximum of twenty days’ lapse before the election. ¹⁰

On the first day of the conclave, the cardinal-electors gather in St. Peter’s Basilica to celebrate the Mass Pro Eligendo Pontifice (for the Election of a Pope). In 2005, Joseph Ratzinger, in his capacity as dean of the College of Cardinals, gave the homily for this Mass, utilizing the phrase “dictatorship of relativism,” subsequently made famous.¹¹ When Benedict XVI abdicated, it was Cardinal Sodano who gave the homily before a large diplomatic corps, in a Mass that included the languages of Latin, Italian, English, French, Spanish, German, Swahili, and Malay. Later that same first day, the cardinal-electors process to the Pauline Chapel within the Vatican and there implore the coming of the Holy Spirit to aid their electoral process. They also hear a brief exhortation from a preacher. From there, accompanied by music, they process to the Sistine Chapel. The cardinals then swear collectively an oath, which reads in part:

We promise and swear to observe with the greatest fidelity and with all persons, clerical or lay, secrecy regarding everything that in any way relates to the election of the Roman Pontiff and regarding what occurs in the place of the election, directly or indirectly related to the results of the voting; we promise and swear not to break this secret in any way, either during or after the election of the new Pontiff, unless explicit authorization is granted by the same Pontiff; and never to lend support or favour to any interference, opposition or any other form of intervention, whereby secular authorities of whatever order and degree or any group of people or individuals might wish to intervene in the election of the Roman Pontiff. ¹²

After this, each individually, with a hand on the Gospels, pledges his oath to the same.

The cardinal-electors are to refrain from all contact with the outside world during the election: no shared messages, no newspapers, no radio, no television.¹³ In 2013, shortly before he stepped down, Benedict XVI introduced the penalty of automatic (latae sententiae) excommunication for anyone violating this norm of confidentiality. ¹⁴

Another homily is given, and the voting begins.

Often the first vote is purely ceremonial, a way for cardinals to honor particular members of the College who, though distinguished, are not considered papabile (electable as pope). From that point on, the voting is scheduled to be two sessions a day, with two rounds of voting per session (four rounds total per day).

The cardinals select three fellow cardinals to count the votes, three others to check the counts, and three, if necessary, to collect ballots from those who, from infirmity, are unable to walk to the high altar. Each able cardinal writes on a ballot the name of his choice for pope, then walks to the high altar. There, under the painting of the Last Judgment by Michelangelo, he says aloud, “I call as my witness Christ the Lord, who will be my judge, that my vote is given to the one who before God I think should be elected.”¹⁵ The cardinal then places the ballot into the proper receptacle, bows to the altar, and returns to his place.

Once the ballots have been placed in the receptacle, they are mixed up and then counted aloud. If the number does not equal that of the electors, the ballots are burned. If the number is accurate, the ballots are taken out singly, noted by two cardinals, and then announced in a loud, clear voice by a third cardinal.

In the 1970s, Pope Paul VI introduced the age limit of 80 for electors, and 120 as the recommended maximum number of voting cardinals (that number has yet to be exceeded in a conclave with 115 cardinals casting their vote in the previous two conclaves).

For a man to be validly elected pope, he must receive two-thirds of the votes. Pope John Paul II changed the rules in 1996 so that after 33 or 34 ballots without a two-thirds majority, a candidate could be elected by a simple majority.

But Benedict XVI reinstated the requirement for a two-thirds majority to elect a pope, reversing John Paul II’s change which had been viewed as a “radical” innovation compared to the two-thirds rule that had existed since 1179. Benedict’s amendment stated that if a deadlock persisted after 13 days of voting, the two top candidates would enter a runoff. He did this to prevent a situation where a majority bloc could push through a candidate by simply holding out until the 34th ballot when there would have been a simple majority. It was also felt that the change would guarantee the greatest possible consensus among the cardinals rather than a candidate who could win with just a narrow majority. Benedict’s reversal was a return to the historical norm.

He also amended the rules to allow the conclave to start sooner than the traditional 15 days after the papal seat becomes vacant – the change was due to his own special circumstances and as Easter was fast approaching in 2013, but the alteration remains.¹⁶

During the election, some candidates will gain support; others will lose it. And if the leading candidates in the first vote fail to win a two-thirds majority after several ballots, support will be transferred to someone else. Pope St. John XXIII once described how candidates bob up and down during votes “like peas in a pot of boiling water.” A cardinal may keep climbing up until he is near the two-thirds majority but then fade, as people conclude he does not have the numbers and switch to someone else. He may later reemerge when other candidates similarly lose favor.

Various laws are established to avoid unduly prolonging a conclave if no clear candidate emerges, and if no result emerges after three days (the usual length of modern conclaves), voting is suspended for a day of “prayer, reflection and dialogue.”¹⁷

After each vote, the ballots are burned, and the smoke coming out of the chimney above the Sistine Chapel is black if the vote is inconclusive, white if a new successor of Peter has been elected.¹⁸

1
Miles Pattenden notes that loud and sometimes violent Roman mobs put great pressure on cardinals in favor of different papal candidates — sometimes instigated by base promises of “bread and circuses.” Many fifteenth- and sixteenth-century prelates blamed popular pressure for the Great Western Schism, which was precipitated by the cardinals’ poor choice for pope. Electing the Pope, 116.
2
Hollingsworth, “Cardinals in Conclave,” 60.
3
Pattenden, Electing the Pope, 102-6, 114-32. Also, John M. Hunt, “Cardinals and the Vacant See,” in A Companion to the Early Modern Cardinal, 322-32.
4
Hollingsworth, “Cardinals in Conclave,” 60.
5
CIC/83 can. 349. These laws include the Ordo Rituum Conclavis (Order of Rites for a Conclave) (2000), and John Paul II, Apostolic Constitution Universi Dominici Gregis (UDG) (22 February 1996), with modifications by Benedict XVI, Apostolic Letter Issued Motu Proprio Normas Nonnullas (NN) (22 February 2013).
6
Grave impediments could include the inability to travel on account of serious sickness, incarceration, or a dictatorial regime.
7
CIC/83 can. 332.2.
8
UDG 19.
9
UDG 12.
10
NN 37.
11
Joseph Ratzinger, Mass Pro Eligendo Pontifice, “Homily of His Eminence Card. Joseph Ratzinger Dean of the College of Cardinals” (18 April 2005).
12
UDG 53.
13
UDG 57.
14
NN 55. Pope Francis appeared to breach this confidentiality rule in a 2024 book interview titled Life: My Story Through History with Spanish journalist Javier Martinez-Brocal, in which he gave details about the 2005 and 2013 conclaves, including political manoeuvres and his own candidacy. He justified the revelations on the grounds that “popes have license to tell it.”
15
UDG 66.
16
Francis hasn’t himself actually made any changes to conclaves, but he is thought to be planning on changing the general congregations — the meetings of cardinals that take place prior to the conclave —limiting them to just cardinal electors (those under the age of 80) and making them synodal with group discussions. There’s also been speculation he’ll include laypeople in pre-conclave discussions, in some ways hearkening back to the time of acclamation and lay involvement, but these have so far been denied.
17
NN 75.
18
Frederic J. Baumgartner argues that the use of distinct colors of smoke is of recent origin: Behind Locked Doors: A History of the Papal Elections (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), 241-45.

Electing a Pope

Conclaves

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