ROME, March 8, 2013, (LifeSiteNews.com) – The conclave to elect the next pope of the Roman Catholic Church will begin Tuesday, the Vatican announced Friday afternoon.
The announcement came at the conclusion of a meeting of all the voting cardinals at the Vatican on Friday. The cardinals have been meeting all this week, engaged in confidential discussions to determine who among them the Holy Spirit has selected for the job.
While Pope Benedict XVI had paved the way for a quicker conclave than is usual in the case of the death of a pope, some cardinals not from the Vatican curia had reportedly asked for more time to prepare for the voting. As well, the last of the cardinals of voting age did not arrive at the Vatican until Thursday.
According to the Vatican, on Tuesday, a mass will be held in the morning in St. Peter’s Basilica, after which the cardinals will process to the Sistine Chapel, where the first round of balloting will take place in the afternoon.
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If the first round does not result in a two-thirds majority, four rounds of voting – two in the morning and two in the afternoon – will take place the following day, and every day thereafter until a pope is elected.
The ballots from unsuccessful votes will be burned with chemicals designed to create black smoke, alerting those watching from St. Peter’s Square that the cardinals have not yet agreed on a successor to Benedict XVI. A successful vote will result in white smoke.
A total of 115 cardinals will participate in the voting.