Cardinals from across five continents gathered on Wednesday at St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican for a solemn final mass ahead of the highly anticipated conclave to elect a new pope.
The sacred tradition follows the death of Pope Francis last month, reports AFP.
A total of 133 cardinal electors, all under the age of 80, will participate in the secretive voting process to select the 267th leader of the Catholic Church.
The conclave, held in the Sistine Chapel under Michelangelo’s iconic frescoes, requires a two-thirds majority, at least 89 votes, to declare a winner.
The Mass, known as the “Pro Eligendo Pontifice,” was presided over by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, the dean of the College of Cardinals.
It marked the last public rite before the cardinals seclude themselves in the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace for one of the most mysterious rituals in global religion. Cardinals are staying at the Santa Marta guesthouse and the adjacent Santa Marta Vecchia.
At 3:45 pm Vatican time, (4:45 pm GMT +1) they will depart for the Pauline Chapel for prayer, before moving to the Sistine Chapel where the conclave officially begins.
Once inside, they will swear an oath of secrecy, surrender mobile phones, and take part in a centuries-old tradition of papal election.
Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, considered one of the leading contenders, will invoke divine guidance, calling on the Holy Spirit with the ancient Latin chant, “Veni, Creator Spiritus.”
While no single frontrunner has emerged, speculation surrounds more than a dozen potential candidates. These include Italian Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Hungarian Cardinal Peter Erdo, and Sri Lankan Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith.
The cardinals are divided between those seeking to preserve Pope Francis’s progressive legacy and others pushing for a return to more conservative doctrine.
Once voting begins, the cardinals will cast their ballots by writing “Eligo in Summum Pontificem” (“I elect as Supreme Pontiff”), fold them, and place them into a silver plate, which tips the votes into an urn.
After each vote, the ballots are burned, black smoke means no decision, while white signals that a new pope has been chosen.
