Ceremonial white smoke billowed from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel when Argentinian Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio—Pope Francis I—was elected to the papacy on March 13, 2013 at age 76.
After his death on Monday at the age of 88, the process to pick a successor will begin once again.
What happens when the Pope dies?
When the pope dies, the Roman Catholic Church enters a period of mourning called the “interregnum.” His death is verified by the cardinal who manages the papal finances and property and burial plans are set in motion.
The papal ring is symbolically destroyed with a ceremonial hammer upon his death (or abdication) to signify the end of his reign.
According to the Universi Dominici Gregis constitution, which governs the papal transition, the pope’s burial must take place between four to six days after his death. Then a conclave limited to 120 cardinals from the Sacred College of Cardinals assemble at the Vatican to vote, between 15 and 20 days after the pope’s death, to begin the process that will determine his successor.
There are 252 cardinals in the Sacred College of Cardinals, but only cardinals under the age of 80 are eligible to vote.
Finding the Perfect Pope
Once a conclave begins, cardinals—like jurors—sequester themselves away from the news and the influence of the outside world in the Sistine Chapel.
They remain there, voting in secret, until a candidate receives a two-thirds majority. Candidates are assessed amid a mixture of speeches, prayer, reflection and, of course, politics, reported The Independent. Although there is an age cap on the cardinals who can participate in a conclave, there is no age limit on a would-be pope.
Conclave members cannot vote for themselves. However, members will usually throw their weight behind a candidate who most closely aligns with their views.
In fact, any baptized Roman Catholic male could technically become pope. The last non-cardinal to do so, however, was in 1378, which led to the Great Western Schism, a scandal in which multiple people claimed to be pope.
The conclave process is dramatized in the Oscar-nominated film 2024 film of the same name, starring Ralph Fiennes as a cardinal tasked with uncovering the dark secrets of several leading candidates.
Those speculated to be in the running for the job after Francis include Cardinals Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state; Luis Tagle, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, and Peter Turkson, chancellor of the Vatican’s scientific academy, who would become the first Black pope, per Edward Pentin’s The Next Pope: The Leading Cardinal Candidates, reported The Independent.
Each day the conclave fails to elect a new pope, black smoke is released from the Sistine Chapel. The conclave votes multiple times a day; the voting ballots are burned with a chemical to create the black smoke.
When the cardinals do finally decide on a new pope, the senior cardinal deacon introduces His Holiness on the balcony overlooking St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City with the famous declaration: “Habemus Papam.” (In case you’re wondering, that means, “We have a pope” in Latin.)
Behind the scenes, the new pope chooses his name on the spot after being asked in Latin, “By what name shall you be called?”
He is taken to a “room of weeping,” Airmail reported, where he is afforded time to “reflect on the weight he now carries on his shoulders.” It’s here he is dressed in his papal robes from a selection provided; a tailor is sent to see the new pope a few days after his successful election to be properly fitted for a cassock and ceremonial investments.
Pope Francis I, who succeeded Pope Benedict XVI following his resignation over health concerns, chose the name Francis in honor of Saint Francis of Assisi, a 13th century Italian saint and founder of the Franciscan order. Francis often spoke highly of Benedict, who died in 2022.
Francis was the first non-European pope and the first Jesuit to lead the Catholic Church; his at-times progressive views have ruffled feathers over the years among the church’s more conservative cardinals and believers.
He criticized capitalism, supported compassion for refugees and migrants and recently rebuked the Trump administration’s mass deportation plan, reported the Associated Press. In addition to calling for a need to address climate change, in support of the Catholic Climate Covenant, Pope Francis also publicly supported some LGBTQ rights and same-sex marriage, marking a “huge step forward.”
In calling for gay people to be welcomed and respected in the Catholic Church, Francis said in a 2023 interview with AP, “We are all children of God, and God loves us as we are and for the strength that each of us fights for our dignity.”
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