The conclave times: days of voting and pauses until a Pope finds

The cardinals who must choose the future Pope in the conclave since Wednesday will do so isolated in the Sistine Chapel and voting day after day, in a cycle of scrutiny that provides for pauses and limits, until an agreement is achieved.

The last conclaves have generally been rapid: Francisco was chosen in 2013 in the fifth vote, Benedict XVI in 2005 in the fourth and John Paul II in 1978 in the eighth, although others lengthened more, such as Pío XI’s in 1922, which required fourteen.

The method of choice of the Pontiff is millimetrically regulated in the Apostolic Constitution ‘Universi Dominici Gregis’ (1996) and other Vatican documents and, given the event that it will be extended, it provides for a series of reflection pauses and exits.

The objective is to accelerate the agreement and, for this, that legislation establishes that the cardinals vote locked in the Sistine four times a day: two in the morning and two in the afternoon.

On this occasion, the wandered ones will begin their meeting on Wednesday afternoon, isolated from 4:30 p.m. (14.30 GMT), and shortly after they will already undergo the first vote.

The Constitution, in its article 74, establishes that if after three days of scrutiny, that is, of twelve votes, the cardinals «found difficulties in agreeing on the person choose», the sessions will be suspended for one day.

In that pause, they can devote themselves to «prayer, to the free colloquium» among them and to listen to a «brief spiritual exhortation» of the first deacon.

In this conclave, to lengthen, the pause would be expected to be next Sunday, after thirteen unsuccessful votes (the afternoon of Wednesday and four on Thursday, Friday and Saturday).

The continuity of the conclave, from that moment of pause, will alternate in the following days of seven votes and reaishes.

In the sixth and seventh day the cardinals will carry out another seven votes and, if there is no agreement, in the last afternoon they will make another break. They would have already accumulated between 19 and 20 votes.

Then he will vote again up to a maximum of another seven occasions, in what would already be his eighth and ninth day. The scrutiny will have already been repeated 26-27 times.

On the ten and eleven days, the sloping will vote for another seven times. At that time, if they have not chosen a new Pope, the conclave will already add a total of 34 votes. Negotiations will seem stuck and Vatican legislation proposes a sharp solution.

After a day dedicated to «prayer, reflection and dialogue» the two most voted cardinals will be submitted to the election in the last scrutiny, which will not be able to express their preference.

A cardinal will be elected Pope if he gets the support of the majority of at least two thirds of the cardinals, in this case 89, since the voters ascend to a total of 133.

The chosen one, yes, must first accept the appointment as a new pontiff, although it could also reject it.

This whole process, according to the strict Vatican protocol, must take place in the most absolute discretion, without the purple voters getting out of the Vatican domains.

The votes will be burned after the count in a stove already installed for the occasion in the Sistine Chapel and the color of the smoke will announce the result to the outside: the black will indicate that there is no agreement; The white will precede the famous ‘Hambemus Papam’.

The schedules planned for daily ‘smoking’ are around 12.00 local time (10.00 GMT) and 19.00 (17.00 GMT).

EFE