The Cardinals had their last meetings today. Tomorrow
morning they have a special mass to pray for the conclave. ( I hope to go) The
conclave itself starts tomorrow afternoon.
The chimney is in place, the Cardinals know each other
fairly well, and everything looks ready.
The conclave itself starts about 4:30pm tomorrow. After the
Cardinals process into the Sistine chapel, they take an oath of secrecy, and
then the master of ceremonies says “Extra Omnes” – “Everybody Out!” Then the
cardinals listen to a meditation by another Cardinal about how they must act
for the good of the Church. Then they proceed to the voting. There will be only
one vote tomorrow.
This one’s an eye-opener vote. After over a week of
meetings, this is when the Cardinals actually get to know for the first time
who the real candidates are. There will probably be many – a lot with a few
votes, and several with more. 77 votes are needed to achieve the two-thirds
majority to be elected pope. It’s very unlikely this will happen tomorrow. The
shortest papal elections have taken 2 days, so we’ll have to wait at least
until Wednesday. Add to that the fact that there seems to be no clear
front-runner, and we could be in for a longer conclave. (though hopefully not
as long the one in 1740, which lasted 181 days, and during which 4 cardinals
died!)
White smoke coming from the Sistine chapel chimney means we
have a pope, black smoke means no pope. The smoke will come at about 7pm
tomorrow, and it will probably be black.
Let’s double our prayers!
God bless you,
Brother Kevin
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