(NEXSTAR) – Pope Francis, the first Latin American pontiff in history, has passed away after a lifetime of dedication to the Catholic Church, the Vatican announced Monday.
Francis’ death comes only a few months after he was admitted to Gemelli hospital in Rome for a respiratory crisis that developed into double pneumonia. He spent 38 days there — the longest hospitalization of his 12-year papacy — but appeared well enough to celebrate Holy Week, and he even blessed believers at an Easter Mass in St. Peter’s Square the day before his passing.
Plans for Francis’ funeral have yet to be formally announced. But the death of the 88-year-old pontiff puts into motion the process of selecting a successor, according to longstanding Vatican traditions.
Upon the death (or resignation) of a pope, a group of clergy members known as the College of Cardinals is called to convene in Rome for a conclave, where they will decide on the next leader of the Catholic Church. During this interim period — known as an “interregnum” — the camerlengo (the Vatican’s treasurer, essentially) acts as the temporary administrator of the Holy See.
The current camerlengo is Cardinal Kevin Joseph Farrell, the same official who announced Francis’ death on Monday morning.
There are currently 252 members of the College of Cardinals, which includes Vatican officials and bishops from around the world. Most members are located in Europe (114), though there are dozens each in Asia (37), South America (32), Africa (29) and North America (28). Central America (8) and Oceania (4) have the fewest members.
Of these 252 members, only those under the age of 80 are allowed to vote on the next pope, meaning 135 are currently eligible to cast ballots. The successor will likely be one of their own (no one outside of the College has been selected as pope since 1378), but technically any baptized Roman Catholic man is eligible for the role. (The ages of the members of the College of Cardinals also range from 45 to 99, though rarely in recent history has a pontiff at such young or old ages been selected.)
The eligible members of the College of Cardinals will gather at the Vatican for meetings in the coming weeks, where they “discuss the needs and the challenges facing the Catholic Church globally,” the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) explains. Eventually, they will convene at St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican to vote by secret ballot, “processing one by one up to Michelangelo’s fresco of the Last Judgment, saying a prayer and dropping the twice-folded ballot in a large chalice,” per the USCCB.
If no candidate gets two-thirds of the vote, the process is repeated up to four times (total) per day. The public is notified if the voting body fails to reach the threshold when black smoke begins rising from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel.
If and when two-thirds of the College of Cardinals vote to select a specific candidate, that candidate is asked whether he accepts the role. If so, the ballots are burned with chemicals to create white smoke, which is sent billowing from the chimney to signal the impending formal announcement of a new pope.
It’s tough to say who, among the eligible members, might be favored for the position, as it’s considered uncouth to discuss such matters publicly — and even poorer form to campaign for the job.
To that point, a popular saying in Vatican circles is that if you “enter a conclave as pope, you leave as a cardinal” — a phrase which implies the sacred process is no popularity contest or campaign, but rather the divinely inspired election of Christ’s Vicar on Earth by the princes of the church.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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