The Conclave

First, a bit of business. I have a few pilgrimages you can join. I’ve been so busy that I forgot to promote them. A few cabins on my Rhine River Cruise. I sold out the entire boat in 48 hours, but as we get closer to departure, a few have dropped out. Next is Lithuania and Poland. The last two years these trips sold out in a day, it’s a great trip. And finally, I added one more Rome Jubilee pilgrimage. All six I offered sold out in minutes, so I decided to do one more. But that’s it!

And now a little more business. 😂 With everything going on in Rome, I am constantly sharing on Instagram, which also cross posts to Facebook. I try to post to X as well, but it’s definitely not as frequent. If you want to keep up with all I’m doing, Instagram is best. I also turned last week’s Tipsy Tuesday into a podcast, something many of you have asked me to do for years. It was a two hour episode where I discussed everything from the death of the Holy Father until the day before the funeral. I’ll also be uploading this week’s Tipsy Tuesday, another two hour show, where I cover the funeral through the prep for the Conclave. I don’t even know how to link to a podcast, but if you search The Catholic Traveler Podcast, wherever you listen, you’ll find it.

Pope Francis

I have not written at all about the death of Pope Francis. To be honest, it was a shock. A month ago, I was expecting it, but Easter Monday, I was not. A crazy bookend of his papacy, but I was in the piazza when he was elected, and when he died. Of course, I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was out there from 7 a.m. until 8 a.m.

If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen that when news started leaking out an hour later, but before it was official, I ran back to the piazza and went live. No journalists were there yet. Tours were just meeting up. The skip the line people were recruiting people who had not planned so well. And the prayer line had a steady flow of pilgrims. Slowly over the next hour, media arrived, as well as priests and nuns who came to pray. It was a surreal scene. The next day, thanks to a friend, I was able to go see him at Santa Marta in his chapel and spent about an hour in prayer beside the coffin. I got up super early the next morning to be sure I was in the front row for the translation of the coffin. And for the funeral, I took my daughters at 4 a.m. so we could have a good spot. They ended up in the fourth row of the “gen pop” section. An Insta follower saw me and brought me into the diplomatic section. After the funeral, which is still crazy to me, I ended up behind Saint Peter’s Basilica with all the cardinals, diplomats, and Heads of State. I missed the procession to Santa Maria Maggiore, but I did see part of it from back there.

So what’s next?

Most importantly, we pray. Pray for the soul of Pope Francis. Pray for the cardinals who will be electing his successor.

The cardinals have been meeting. We don’t know the details of what is discussed, but they all have a chance to speak. I imagine most of them know of each other, but they don’t all really know one another. These meetings give the cardinal from Sri Lanka, for example, a chance to tell all the other cardinals what is needed in his part of the world. Then the cardinal from Papua New Guinea can do the same. It may come as a shock to some, but what’s important in the US may not even be top ten in Africa. So this gives everyone a chance to share and understand.

So pray the cardinals listen and hear what God needs them to hear.

There are many prayers you can find for the conclave, but here is the novena by Cardinal Burke.

“Ok, we are praying, tell us the fun stuff!”

A friend, who asked not to be named, shared a few photos with me of the prep for the Sistine Chapel. Here they are installing the floor.

Why a floor? They will add tables and chairs for the cardinals and they need an even surface. You can find photos from the last conclave to see the “after.”

Today they added the chimney. Many didn’t realize this isn’t a permanent fixture. It’s not, it’s only added for conclaves.

Next week is something you probably won’t hear much about… there are lots of people around the cardinals during the conclave. Drivers, cooks, servers, nurses, doctors, etc. Guess what? They also have to take the oath of secrecy. I don’t know how chatty the cardinals are as they drive from Santa Marta to the Sistine Chapel, or over dinner, but they need to be sure the people around them know to respect the oath. I think that’s so cool.

Logistics

This is the stuff I love. Now things could change, but this is what to expect next week beginning on May 7th. Note that on May 7th, only the afternoon vote happens, and it’s just one vote, not two.

7:45 a.m. – the cardinals depart Santa Marta.

8:15 a.m. – the cardinals celebrate Holy Mass in the Pauline Chapel.

9:30 a.m. – After some prayer, voting begins.

The cardinals will vote twice, unless someone is elected after the first vote. Only after both votes, the ballots will be burned.

This means we should see smoke between 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. but we need to be patient.

If it’s black smoke, the cardinals head to Santa Marta for lunch and probably a nap.

4:00 p.m. – The cardinals return to the Sistine Chapel for the next round of votes.

Again, the cardinals will vote twice, unless someone is elected after the first vote. And only after both votes, the ballots will be burned.

We can expect smoke then between 5:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

If a pope has not been elected, the cardinals will pray vespers before returning to Santa Marta for dinner and sleep.

What happens when we get white smoke?

When a pope has been elected, they will burn the ballots, but add a chemical to the mix so the smoke comes out white, then the bells will begin to ring – and what a beautiful sound that is! The lights of the loggia will come on as the cardinals make their way to the balconies to the left and right of the central balcony.

Smoke watch meet ups

During the last conclave, just by chance, I had a group in town. For each vote we arrived early in the square and prayed and waited. I don’t have a group this time, but lots of people (over 100!) have asked me to do something. So I’ll be arranging some meet ups. We will hang out in the square together, pray, and wait. And probably after the smoke, black or white, some of us may go for dinner or a drink. So if you are coming to Rome, let me know. Be sure to also let me know where you are from, because the major networks, ABC, CBS, and NBC have asked me to find some people who might want to talk about their experience.

I will probably set up the meet ups through Instagram / Facebook. So follow there if you are not already.

If you are on the fence about coming, jump off and get over here. It is one of the most exciting Catholic experiences you will ever have.

When will we have a pope and who will it be?

I’m not speculating on who, there are a few I’d love to see, but it’s not up to me. If you want to know who will be in there voting, this site is really well done. I have not verified all the “where they stand” stuff, but it’s nice to see all the names, faces, ages, and where they are from.

As for when? That I’ll speculate! I think we will have a pope by Friday morning at the latest. The first vote is Wednesday afternoon. There will be just one vote that afternoon. I assume they all vote for themselves, just in case. 😂 Thursday we will have another four votes. So by the end of Friday morning, we will already be seven votes in. So that’s my final answer Friday morning at the latest.

That’s it for now. Pray. Pray a lot.

— Mountain