Right here’s a take a look at what occurs subsequent after Pope Francis’s death Monday at 88.
What’s subsequent?
Within the coming days, the pope shall be mourned, eulogized and laid to relaxation as the top of the Catholic church, bishop of Rome and sovereign chief of Vatican Metropolis
Then, the School of Cardinals — made up of high bishops who’re thought of “princes of the church” — will assemble from around the globe for a voting course of to decide on Francis’ successor in a course of known as conclave. It’s rooted in ritual and custom, with loads of Latin.
That may occur after a selected Vatican official — the one in command of the papal family often known as the camerlengo — introduced the demise.
What’s a papal funeral like?
A viewing and funeral Mass will happen within the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, the centerpiece of Vatican Metropolis. There isn’t a eulogy as such, however part of the Mass known as the homily usually honors the deceased along with reflecting on Scripture.
Not like his predecessors from over the previous few hundred years, Francis mentioned he didn’t need to be buried within the grottoes below the basilica however elsewhere in Rome at his favourite church, Saint Mary Main. He additionally requested to simplify the proceedings, with a single casket as a substitute of the same old ceremonial three, that’s to stay open on the ground for viewing as a substitute of being raised on a platform.
In life, Francis has eschewed the papal palace for a small guesthouse on the Vatican, modeling after his namesake St. Francis of Assisi, who had devoted himself to the poor.
How is a brand new pope chosen?
Conclave should start a minimum of 15 days however not more than 20 days after the pope dies. The thought is to go away time to mourn however not too lengthy with out a pope in cost, in keeping with the Rev. Robin Ryan of the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago.
In the course of the time between the funeral and conclave, the entire cardinals collect to debate the state of the church and what its wants are.
Solely these cardinals who’re below the age of 80 might vote.
Cardinal Blase Cupich, the 76-year-old archbishop of Chicago, is one of the 10 voting cardinals from the United States and one of three with major ties to Chicago.
It wasn’t instantly clear who will manage the conclave this time, because the Italian official who’s lengthy served because the dean of the School of Cardinals, Giovanni Battista Re, is 91. That’s too previous to vote and even attend conclave, a phrase that comes from Italian, “with a key” referring to the non-public nature of the method.
How non-public is the method?
Contained in the Vatican, the voting cardinals sequester themselves with out cell telephones or communication with the surface world. Following an oath of absolute secrecy, they deliberate amongst themselves and solid secret ballots within the Sistine Chapel earlier than Michelangelo’s “Final Judgment,” Ryan says.
Prior to now, the Vatican has put in expertise to jam any cell phones or different forbidden digital units. The punishment for violating the oath of secrecy, in keeping with modifications made by Pope Benedict XVI when he took the unorthodox step in 2013 of abdicating, is excommunication.
Are the cardinals caught within the Sistine Chapel?
For the voting, sure. And the cardinals are confined to the Vatican till they select a brand new pope. They’re lodged close by in Saint Martha’s Home, a guesthouse adjoining to the basilica, the place, in 2013, Francis stayed in the course of the conclave that elected him.
Francis by no means left, selecting to reside there amongst others as a substitute of alone within the penthouse house within the Apostolic Palace.
Saint Martha’s was accomplished in 1996 on the needs of Pope John Paul II who needed older members of the School of Cardinals to have extra snug lodgings than the prior observe of sharing frequent bogs and sleeping on cots stashed all through the palace, together with in its hallways and places of work.
How does the voting work?
The cardinals vote 4 occasions a day for as many days as they want for a single candidate to achieve two-third of the ballots.
There isn’t a restrict on what number of candidates stay in consideration — till after the thirty fourth poll. Then, it turns into a runoff involving solely the highest two.
Ryan describes the voting ceremony: Every cardinal writes the identify of his most popular candidate on a offered slip of paper. One after the other, every takes his poll to a big chalice at one finish of the room and drops it in. Three cardinals function “scrutineers” to witness the voting, attain the ballots aloud, rely the votes, and file the outcomes.
After every morning and every night with out a new pope, the cardinals ship up a column of black smoke that’s seen outdoors.
Smoke?
Sure, precise smoke. Earlier than conclave will get underway, the Vatican’s hearth division units up two stoves at one finish of the chapel, connected to a copper chimney that pokes by way of the roof. One of many stoves is used to burn the ballots; the opposite burns pellets that kind a column of black or white smoke.
The person in the end chosen to be pope has to simply accept the election. He chooses a papal identify and places on clothes to differentiate him as pope, in keeping with the U.S. Convention of Catholic Bishops.
A senior cardinal seems on the balcony of the basilica to announce the brand new pope in Latin, saying “Habemus papam” — “Now we have a pope.” Then, the brand new pontiff seems on the balcony and points a blessing, “Urbi et orbi” — “To the town [of Rome] and the world.”
The world will be taught that they’ve reached an settlement when the smoke is white.
In 2013, a 76-year-old Francis emerged because the winner on the second day of voting. The longest conclave on file took three years.
Who will the subsequent pope be?
Although the principles dictate that the cardinals can select from any baptized, Catholic man, custom has — with simply six exceptions, the final of them in 1378 — pulled the pope from the School of Cardinals itself.
Custom, till the late twentieth century, additionally meant that the Holy Father could be chosen from Italian clergy. Solely the three most up-to-date popes previously 500 years have come from outdoors Italy, with Francis born in Argentina to oldsters of Italian descent. Pope Benedict XVI, who resigned in 2013, was born in Germany. Pope John Paul II was from Poland — on his 1979 United States pilgrimage and earlier visits as a bishop, he visited Polish parishes of Chicago.
The School of Cardinals Report web site, operated by impartial Catholic journalists and researchers, lists probably contenders as “papabile” — that’s Italian for “popeable” or “capable of be pope”— together with one American.
That’s Cardinal Emeritus Raymond Leo Burke, 76, who led his dwelling diocese of La Crosse, Wis., in addition to the archdiocese of St. Louis earlier than being known as to Rome by Benedict XVI to go the workplace that serves because the church’s “supreme courtroom.”
Might an American be pope?
Technically, sure, and three of the voting Cardinals have sturdy Chicago ties — Cupich and Chicago natives Wilton Gregory, 78, retired archbishop of Washington, D.C., and Robert Prevost, 69, whom Francis known as to the Vatican to go the workplace that screens potential bishops. He has held management posts for the Order of St. Augustine monks in Chicago and in Rome.
But it surely appears inconceivable that the brand new pope would come from among the many U.S. delegation, primarily, in keeping with the Rev. Stan Chu Ilo of DePaul College, who has written books about Pope Francis and labored with a number of members of the School of Cardinals, partially as a result of that the group of U.S. bishops is seen as extra divided than these in different international locations.
What’s at stake for the Catholic church?
Francis appointed the overwhelming majority of the cardinals who will select his successor . Which means the subsequent pontiff probably will observe in his footsteps as a progressive Catholic chief relatively than return to a extra socially conservative and dogmatic strategy. His appointments even have made the School of Cardinals much less European — there are extra voting cardinals from outdoors Europe than inside.
Though hewing to the rules towards ordaining girls and laypeople or marrying same-sex {couples}, Francis loosened bans on divorced individuals so they might obtain Holy Group and have their marriages annulled extra simply. He additionally permitted monks to offer a blessing at same-sex weddings. In so doing, he ruffled the feathers of utmost conservatives.
Francis additionally centered on caring for poor and marginalized individuals. However some have criticized him for not doing sufficient to cope with the church’s sexual abuse disaster and cover-ups, which continues to reverberate in the US and around the globe.
Worldwide, there are greater than 1 billion Catholics — a inhabitants on the rise in Asia, Africa and Latin America however typically on the decline in Europe and the Western world.
In the US, about one in 5 American adults identifies as Catholic — greater than 50 million individuals, in keeping with the Pew Analysis Heart. Metropolitan Chicago has the third-largest Catholic inhabitants nationwide, with 4 dioceses. The Archdiocese of Chicago covers Prepare dinner and Lake counties, the diocese of Joliet contains Will and DuPage counties, Rockford contains Kane and McHenry counties, and the diocese of Gary contains Lake and Porter counties in northwest Indiana.
U.S. Catholics have broadly seen Francis as an agent of change, in keeping with the Pew Research Center, which additionally experiences {that a} majority of Catholics assist permitting the usage of contraception, permitting Catholics who reside single with a associate to take Communion, letting monks marry and girls to be ordained and recognizing the marriages of Catholic lesbian and homosexual {couples}.
