The process to elect a successor to Pope Francis, who died on 21 April, is now under way with the conclave — the balloting — beginning on Wednesday 7 May. Catherine Pepinster explains what the conclave involves, who takes part, and what kind of pope is likely to be elected
What is a conclave?
A conclave is a secret election to elect a new pope, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church. It can be called either after the death of a pope or, rarely, after a resignation — as when Pope Benedict XVI quit in 2013 and the cardinals chose Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, who took the name Francis.
Those who vote are the cardinals who belong to the College of Cardinals and are under 80 years old. Of the 250 or so members of the college, 135 meet the age criteria.
They will conduct their ballots in the Sistine Chapel, next to the apostolic palace and near St Peter’s Basilica, in the Vatican. The proceedings are secret: only the voting cardinals can attend, and the name conclave comes from the Latin cum clave — with a key — meaning that they locked in the chapel to vote.
So, is it one vote and then a new pope?
No. To be elected, a candidate needs to gain a majority of two-thirds. There can be multiple rounds of secret voting in the conclave until they reach that majority.
One ballot is held on the first day of the conclave. On the following days, two ballots are held in the morning and two in the afternoon until you get to that magic number — the two-thirds majority.
Are all 135 cardinals with a vote attending?
No, the Vinko Puljić, Archbishop Emeritus of Sarajevo, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Antonio Cañizares Llovera, Archbishop Emeritus of Valencia in Spain, are not attending because they are ill.
Cardinal Angelo Becciu of Sardinia will not be there because he was banned from participating by Pope Francis who left orders about it. The once-powerful Becciu became embroiled in a financial scandal involving multimillion-pound properties in London.
He is not the first cardinal prevented by scandal from attending a conclave. In 2013, Cardinal Keith O’Brien of St Andrews and Edinburgh was subject of a newspaper exposé regarding inappropriate behaviour with seminarians. At the same time, Cardinal Roger Mahony, a former Archbishop of Los Angeles, was urged not to attend the conclave because of allegations that he protected priests accused of child sex abuse. However, he insisted upon taking part.
What about the other cardinals too old to vote?
Many of those over 80 are in Rome, with considerable numbers arriving to attend the funeral of Pope Francis. They have stayed on to take part in the general congregations, the gatherings of the College of Cardinals where the cardinals come together to talk about great issues of the day and discuss what is most important at this time and so who might best lead the church as Pope.
How important are those congregations?
Very. Many of the cardinals do not know one another well. This gives them an opportunity to chat, find out one another’s character, who had leadership qualities, and listen to speeches. In 2013 one of the speeches was given by Bergoglio, and it’s thought that clinched him the support he needed to be elected.
This time between the death of the pope and the conclave is called the interregnum or sede vacante (empty throne) and is also important because the cardinals also chat over lunch, and attend events at seminaries around Rome while countries’ embassies to the Holy See may hold receptions for cardinals. In 2013, the UK embassy held a reception not only for British cardinals but also for those from Commonwealth nations.
How many UK cardinals are there?
Four — the biggest contingent ever from England and Wales. There are three voting cardinals: Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster; Arthur Roche, who has a high-ranking Vatican job, heading its Divine Worship office; and Timothy Radcliffe, the former head of the worldwide Dominican order. Michael Fitzgerald, a former Vatican official and interfaith specialist, is also in Rome attending the general congregations but, at 87, he is too old to vote.
Scotland, which has its own bishops’ conference, does not have a cardinal at the moment. Northern Ireland is treated as part of the Irish bishops’ conference, where the Primate of All Ireland and Archbishop of Armagh is Eamon Martin, who is not a cardinal. His predecessor at Armagh, Sean Brady, is now 86 and too old to vote.
What is the make-up of the voting cardinals, region by region?
Europe: 50. It should be 53 but two are ill and Becciu is banned from attending.
Asia: 23
North America: 20, of which three are Canadian — Thomas Collins, Michael Czerny, and Gérald Lacroix — and the rest from the US.
Africa: 18
South America: 17
Oceania: 4
Who picks them?
The pope of their day
Did Pope Francis do anything different?
He made the College of Cardinals much more representative of the global Catholic church and far less Eurocentric, which adds to this conclave’s unpredictability. Twenty of them were made cardinals only last year and many had never met one another before.
Vatican News reports that 15 nations will be represented for the first time by their native cardinal electors. They are: Chibly Langlois from Haiti; Arlindo Furtado Gomes from Cape Verde; Dieudonné Nzapalainga from the Central African Republic; John Ribat from Papua New Guinea; Charles Maung Bo from Myanmar; Antoine Kambanda, from Rwanda; Soane Patita Paini Mafi, from Tonga; Sebastian Francis from Malaysia; Anders Arborelius from Sweden; Jean-Claude Hollerich from Luxembourg; Virgilio do Carmo da Silva from Timor-Leste; William Goh Seng Chye from Singapore; Adalberto Martínez Flores from Paraguay; Stephen Ameyu Martin Mulla from South Sudan; and Ladislav Nemet from Serbia.
Is it fair to say Francis packed the conclave with his own people?
Like other popes before him, Francis had the power of patronage, choosing his cardinals. 80 per cent of the voting cardinals were chosen by him during his 12 years as pope. But they are not all carbon copies of him. The Africans, for example, tend to be much more hardline on homosexuality than Francis. However, they share his focus on poverty and injustice.
Is there anything else unusual about this conclave?
While the camerlengo — treasurer of the Holy See, a position now held by Kevin Farrell — runs the Vatican during the interregnum, the dean of the college runs the conclave. The current dean, Cardinal Battista Re, is 91 and cannot participate.
His place would be taken by the vice-dean — but in this case Leonardo Sandri is 81. So the senior prelate is likely to be Pietro Parolin, the secretary of state.
Will there be arguments in the run-up to the conclave?
Highly likely. Some cardinals — particularly the ones left from Pope Benedict XVI’s time — think that the Catholic church needs to offer greater clarity on traditional teaching. They think Francis was too tough on those who wanted to continue using the old traditional Latin rite for mass, which he effectively banned.
Some will believe that giving laypeople more say in the church — as advocated by Francis — must be pursued. Others will want to rein back.
One conservative cardinal, Gerhard Müller, who was chosen by Benedict XVI to head the Vatican’s doctrinal office, and sacked by Francis, has said the church will split if it does not return to orthodoxy.
Other issues up for debate: pursuing Francis’s line on speaking up for migrants; advocating for trafficked people; the liturgy; how the church deals with sex abuse; educating people in the faith; encouraging young people; Vatican finances; and dialogue with other faiths.
While this is all going on, where do the cardinals stay?
Many of them will stay in their countries’ own seminaries in Rome before the conclave, or, if they belong to a religious order such as the Dominicans or the Franciscans, in one of their houses in Rome.
Once the conclave starts, the voting cardinals must stay together in Casa Santa Marta, where Francis lived, and was built mostly for conclaves and for other events needing residential stays by John Paul II. Before that, they would camp in the apostolic palace, often sleeping in corridors.
How cut off are they during the conclave?
No phones are allowed, nor is any no access to the media. Only in an emergency, such as the death of a close relative, are attendees allowed to have contact with the outside world.
The cardinals in the conclave take an oath of secrecy and so do staff attending them, such as cooking and cleaning staff at Santa Marta.
Is the rest of the Catholic church involved?
Catholics believe that the cardinals are inspired by the Holy Spirit. Just before they enter the conclave, there is a mass for the election of a pope — Missa Pro Eligendo Papa. Then, after processing into the Sistine Chapel, they sing the Veni Creator Spiritus (Come, Creator Spirit) invoking the Holy Spirit. It’s after that prayer that they take their oath of secrecy.
Before that, the cardinals issue a request for people to help them in their momentous decision by praying for them.
Catholics hope that they can rely on the cardinals of their countries to highlight the issues that matter most to them. The general congregations are not like political conferences where lobby groups hold fringe events, but some organisations — large Catholic charities, say, may invite some of the cardinals to visit their Rome offices. Religious orders who have cardinals among their members may well indicate their thinking on the issues affecting the church.
The fact that many cardinals attended recent synod gatherings in Rome in the past few years, sharing meetings with laypeople, have given them greater insight than ever before into the thinking of ordinary people in the church.
Is it as claustrophobic as depicted in the Conclave film?
The film’s ending was deemed far-fetched but the atmosphere of the conclave and the details of the voting are thought to be authentic.
How do we know what’s going on in the conclave?
There’s one way to find out: watching a tiny little chimney near St Peter’s. When a conclave is called, a small stove is installed in the Sistine Chapel. When a ballot does not produce a pope, the ballot papers are burnt with a chemical that produces black smoke, which emits from the Sistine Chapel chimney. When a pope is elected, chemicals are added to the papers and produce white smoke.
Thousands of people — and the world’s media — wait in St Peter’s Square to watch for smoke.
And when he is elected?
The new pope then goes to a room next to the Sistine Chapel called the Room of Tears, apparently named because it is there that the enormity of the role becomes apparent. There, he chooses from three white cassocks, made by the papal outfitters Gammarelli in small, medium and large.
He then goes on to the balcony where he is announced to the crowd, using his own name in Latin and his chosen papal name.
Has this election system always been used?
No, there have been reforms. The Pope is also the Bishop of Rome and the Bishop of Rome used to be elected by acclamation of the people and the clergy.
Today’s system dates from the Middle Ages, with a few adjustments on the way. The College of Cardinals was designated as the sole body of electors in 1059. It was Paul VI in 1970 who decided that only cardinals under 80 should vote.
Cardinals have not always been bishops. Until 1899, a few laypeople could be appointed to the College of Cardinals and then in 1917 canon law was changed so that only priests could be cardinals. Then in the 1970s it was decided cardinals should be bishops — but there are exceptions. Francis appointed Timothy Radcliffe, who is not a bishop.
Paul VI also tried to limit cardinal electors to 120 but this has been breached by his successors.
What is the so-called pendulum theory of the conclave?
Simply, after one type of pope, the cardinals want another. In the 19th century they chose Leo XIII, essentially a liberal who made overtures to secular democracies and launched Catholic social teaching. Next came Pius X, who was deeply conservative. The cardinals wanted to slow down the pace of change.
After Pius XII, pope from 1939 to 1958, who was fretful about change and worried about the future, came the bold John XXIII who called the Second Vatican Council.
Paul VI was a consolidator of John XXIII and then came another seismic moment with John Paul II. After John Paul II, came Benedict XVI, another consolidator, followed by a swing the other way to the reforming Pope Francis.
Any idea who might take the papal throne?
Probable candidates are called papabile — an Italian word that essentially means pope-able. Here are some frontrunners:
Pietro Parolin, 70: the Vatican’s secretary of state since 2013, has long been considered a sensible, moderate figure within the church. But as a diplomat he has no pastoral experience and has been criticised as too soft on the Beijing regime over allowing the Communist government to pick Catholic bishops.
Pierbattista Pizzaballa, 60: an Italian but serving in the Middle East as Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem. Considered to have done a good job in almost impossible circumstances. Often ventures into Gaza to see Arab Catholics there. A diplomat and biblical scholar. If elected he could be pope for 30 years — and that might go against him.
Luis Tagle, 67: the Filipino cardinal has long been considered a successor to Francis, sharing his pastoral style and affable manner. Has moved from his home country to Rome where he runs the Vatican department for evangelisation, but some say he has not shone as an administrator. More popular with the media than his fellow cardinals.
Matteo Zuppi, 69: Archbishop of Bologna and head of the Italian bishops’ conference since 2022. Shares Francis’s reforming ideas. The Italians would love the papacy back — but others might not be so keen. Zuppi was Francis’s go-to peacemaker, sending him as his special envoy to Ukraine. Part of the Sant’Egidio movement, known for its work in peacemaking, with the marginalised and the disabled.
Mario Grech, 68: Francis chose Grech to run the influential Synod of Bishops. Once seen as a conservative, Grech has been more known in recent years for reaching out to the gay community. Grech, a former Bishop of Gozo, Malta, has been quoted in his own country saying that things used to be black and white but nowadays there is a lot more grey.
Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, 65: head of the church in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Admired for standing up to the government there and increasing the influence and membership of the Catholic church. Like other African cardinals such as Peter Turkson and Robert Sarah, very conservative on personal morality and sexuality. A Franciscan Capuchin friar.
(story updated 6/5/25 to make clear that Archbishop Eamon Martin is not a cardinal)
