Here’s a look at what happens next after Pope Francis’s death Monday at 88.
What’s next?
In the coming days, the pope will be mourned, eulogized and laid to rest as the head of the Catholic church, bishop of Rome and sovereign leader of Vatican City
Then, the College of Cardinals — made up of top bishops who are considered “princes of the church” — will assemble from around the world for a voting process to choose Francis’ successor in a process called conclave. It’s rooted in ritual and tradition, with plenty of Latin.
That will happen after a particular Vatican official — the one in charge of the papal household known as the camerlengo, Cardinal Kevin Ferrell — announced the death.
What is a papal funeral like?
A viewing and funeral Mass will take place in the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, the centerpiece of Vatican City. There is no eulogy as such, but a part of the Mass called the homily typically honors the deceased in addition to reflecting on Scripture.
Unlike his predecessors from over the past few hundred years, Francis said he didn’t want to be buried in the grottoes under the basilica but elsewhere in Rome at his favorite church, Saint Mary Major. He also asked to simplify the proceedings, with a single casket instead of the usual ceremonial three, that is to remain open on the floor for viewing instead of being raised on a platform.
In life, Francis has eschewed the papal palace for a small guesthouse at the Vatican, modeling after his namesake St. Francis of Assisi, who had devoted himself to the poor.
How is a new pope chosen?
Conclave must begin at least 15 days but no more than 20 days after the pope dies. The idea is to leave time to mourn but not too long without a pope in charge, according to the Rev. Robin Ryan of the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago.
During the time between the funeral and conclave, all of the cardinals gather to discuss the state of the church and what its needs are.
There are 252 cardinals in the College of Cardinals. But only those who are under the age of 80 may vote. There are 135 cardinals who meet that requirement and will serve as electors.
Cardinal Blase Cupich, the 76-year-old archbishop of Chicago, is among them. He’s one of the 10 voting cardinals from the United States and one of three with major ties to Chicago.
It wasn’t immediately clear who will organize the conclave this time, as the Italian official who’s long served as the dean of the College of Cardinals, Giovanni Battista Re, is 91. That’s too old to vote or even attend conclave, a word that comes from Italian, “with a key” referring to the private nature of the process.
How private is the process?
Inside the Vatican, the voting cardinals sequester themselves without cell phones or communication with the outside world. Following an oath of absolute secrecy, they deliberate among themselves and cast secret ballots in the Sistine Chapel before Michelangelo’s “Last Judgment,” Ryan says.
In the past, the Vatican has installed technology to jam any mobile phones or other forbidden electronic devices. The punishment for violating the oath of secrecy, according to changes made by Pope Benedict XVI when he took the unorthodox step in 2013 of abdicating, is excommunication.
Are the cardinals stuck in the Sistine Chapel?
For the voting, yes. And the cardinals are confined to the Vatican until they choose a new pope. They’re lodged nearby in Saint Martha’s House, a guesthouse adjacent to the basilica, where, in 2013, Francis stayed during the conclave that elected him.
Francis never left, choosing to live there among others instead of alone in the penthouse apartment in the Apostolic Palace.
Saint Martha’s was completed in 1996 at the wishes of Pope John Paul II who wanted older members of the College of Cardinals to have more comfortable lodgings than the prior practice of sharing common bathrooms and sleeping on cots stashed throughout the palace, including in its hallways and offices.
How does the voting work?
The cardinals vote four times a day for as many days as they need for a single candidate to gain two-third of the ballots. With 135 electors, that means securing the votes of 90 cardinals.
There is no limit on how many candidates remain in consideration — until after the 34th ballot. Then, it becomes a runoff involving only the top two.
Ryan describes the voting ceremony: Each cardinal writes the name of his preferred candidate on a provided slip of paper. One at a time, each takes his ballot to a large chalice at one end of the room and drops it in. Three cardinals serve as “scrutineers” to witness the voting, reach the ballots aloud, count the votes, and record the results.
After each morning and each evening without a new pope, the cardinals send up a column of black smoke that’s visible outside.
Smoke?
Yes, actual smoke. Before conclave gets underway, the Vatican’s fire department sets up two stoves at one end of the chapel, attached to a copper chimney that pokes through the roof. One of the stoves is used to burn the ballots; the other burns pellets that form a column of black or white smoke.
The man ultimately chosen to be pope has to accept the election. He chooses a papal name and puts on garments to distinguish him as pope, according to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
A senior cardinal appears on the balcony of the basilica to announce the new pope in Latin, saying “Habemus papam” — “We have a pope.” Then, the new pontiff appears on the balcony and issues a blessing, “Urbi et orbi” — “To the city [of Rome] and the world.”
The world will learn that they have reached an agreement when the smoke is white.
In 2013, a 76-year-old Francis emerged as the winner on the second day of voting. The longest conclave on record took three years.
Who will the next pope be?
Though the rules dictate that the cardinals can choose from any baptized, Catholic man, tradition has — with just six exceptions, the last of them in 1378 — pulled the pope from the College of Cardinals itself.
Tradition, until the late 20th century, also meant that the Holy Father would be selected from Italian clergy. Only the three most recent popes in the past 500 years have come from outside Italy, with Francis born in Argentina to parents of Italian descent. Pope Benedict XVI, who resigned in 2013, was born in Germany. Pope John Paul II was from Poland — on his 1979 United States pilgrimage and earlier visits as a bishop, he visited Polish parishes of Chicago.
The College of Cardinals Report website, operated by independent Catholic journalists and researchers, lists likely contenders as “papabile” — that’s Italian for “popeable” or “able to be pope”— including one American.
That’s Cardinal Emeritus Raymond Leo Burke, 76, who led his home diocese of La Crosse, Wis., as well as the archdiocese of St. Louis before being called to Rome by Benedict XVI to head the office that serves as the church’s “supreme court.”
Of the rest, 12 are European, four are Asian, three African and one each from Canada and South America. Their ages range from 59 to 82, according to the data gathered by the Report website.
Could an American be pope?
Technically, yes, and three of the voting Cardinals have strong Chicago ties — Cupich and Chicago natives Wilton Gregory, 78, retired archbishop of Washington, D.C., and Robert Prevost, 69, whom Francis called to the Vatican to head the office that screens potential bishops. He has held leadership posts for the Order of St. Augustine priests in Chicago and in Rome.
But it seems improbable that the new pope would come from among the U.S. delegation, mainly, according to the Rev. Stan Chu Ilo of DePaul University, who has written books about Pope Francis and worked with several members of the College of Cardinals, in part because that the group of U.S. bishops is seen as more deeply divided than bishops in other countries.
In an interview Monday with NPR, Cupich, who noted that this will be his first conclave, said it’s too early for him to think about who might be the next pope.
A Chicago memorial
Cupich announced a memorial Mass for Francis will be held at 10 a.m. Wednesday at Holy Name Cathedral, 735 N. State St., and said it also will be livestreamed on YouTube.
What’s at stake for the Catholic church?
Francis appointed the overwhelming majority of the cardinals who will choose his successor — 108 o the 135.
That means the next pontiff likely will follow in his footsteps as a progressive Catholic leader rather than mark a return to a more socially conservative and dogmatic approach. His appointments also have made the College of Cardinals less European — there are more voting cardinals from outside Europe than inside.
Though Francis hewed to the rules against ordaining women and laypeople or marrying same-sex couples, he loosened bans on divorced people so they could receive Holy Community and have their marriages annulled more easily. He also permitted priests to give a blessing at same-sex weddings. In so doing, he ruffled the feathers of extreme conservatives.
Francis also focused on taking care of poor and marginalized people. But some have criticized him for not doing enough to deal with the church’s sexual abuse crisis and cover-ups, which continues to reverberate in the United States and around the world.
Worldwide, there are more than 1 billion Catholics — a population on the rise in Asia, Africa and Latin America but generally on the decline in Europe and the Western world.
In the United States, about one in five American adults identifies as Catholic — more than 50 million people, according to the Pew Research Center. Metropolitan Chicago has the third-largest Catholic population nationwide, with four dioceses. The Archdiocese of Chicago covers Cook and Lake counties, the diocese of Joliet includes Will and DuPage counties, Rockford includes Kane and McHenry counties, and the diocese of Gary includes Lake and Porter counties in northwest Indiana.
U.S. Catholics have widely viewed Francis as an agent of change, according to the Pew Research Center, which also reports that a majority of Catholics support allowing the use of contraception, allowing Catholics who live unmarried with a partner to take Communion, letting priests marry and women to be ordained and recognizing the marriages of Catholic lesbian and gay couples.
