The world won’t know the next bishop of Rome, apostolic successor to St. Peter the Apostle and leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics until he appears before a throng of supporters in St. Peter’s Square.
But in the coming days, powerful members of the Catholic Church from around the world will take part in a process that is part spiritual and part pragmatic.
For the first time since 2013, the College of Cardinals will gather in Vatican City for a conclave in order to choose a successor to Pope Francis, who died on April 21.
The term “conclave,” made newly famous by the Oscar-nominated 2024 film of the same name, comes from a Latin word for a “room that can be locked up.”
PBS News spoke with professors of theology, history and law to answer some of the most common questions about conclaves.
When is the conclave?
The conclave will begin May 7. It will be the first in 20 years to take place after a pontiff’s death.
A conclave must start 15 to 20 days after the pope’s chair becomes “lawfully vacant.” That’s according to an apostolic constitution written by Pope John Paul II in 1996 and updated by Benedict XVI in 2013.
Pope John Paul II’s death in 2005 led to the election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. Twelve years ago, Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation prompted the conclave that elected Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio to the papacy.
Pope Francis waves as he arrives to lead the general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican Aug. 26, 2015. Photo by Max Rossi/ Reuters
Where does the conclave take place?
The conclave takes place in Vatican City, the Italian city-state located inside Rome and governed by the Holy See.
The cardinals gather at St. Peter’s Basilica to celebrate a special Mass before solemnly proceeding later in the day inside the Sistine Chapel, where the voting will take place.
Pope Francis in the Sistine Chapel in 2020. Photo by Vatican Media/Handout via Reuters
How long will the conclave last?
The apostolic constitution lays out a schedule for voting until a new pope is chosen by a two-thirds majority of the ballots.
On the first day, the cardinals can take one vote in the afternoon. Then, the cardinals vote twice in the morning and twice in the afternoon on each successive day.
If a pope is not chosen after three days of voting, the cardinals suspend voting for up to one day “to allow a pause for prayer, informal discussion among the voters, and a brief spiritual exhortation” by a key cardinal.
While there are procedures in place if a conclave lasts longer than three days, don’t expect the 2025 conclave to stretch that far.
“I’ll be worried if it starts to be more than three days,” said Kathleen Sprows Cummings, a professor of history at the University of Notre Dame.
The longest papal election in history took more than two years in the late 1200s. It prompted reforms, including that the cardinals meet in conclave to elect a new pope.
Only twice in the 20th century did a conclave stretch for five days (1903 and 1922). In the 21st century, the 2005 and 2013 conclaves each lasted two days.
Who can vote in the election?
Cardinals – the senior-most clergy in the Catholic Church behind the pope – who are under age 80 at the time of the papal vacancy are the only eligible electors in the conclave. One hundred and thirty-five of the Church’s 252 cardinals will be eligible to vote for the next pontiff in 2025, though two cardinals said they will not take part due to health reasons.
Cardinal Angelo Becciu, who recently asserted he had a right to participate in the conclave even after Francis forced him to resign his key Vatican position and his rights as a cardinal in 2020 over financial misconduct allegations, reversed course Tuesday.
“Having at heart the good of the church, which I have served and will continue to serve with fidelity and love, as well as to contribute to the communion and serenity of the conclave, I have decided to obey as I have always done the will of Pope Francis not to enter the conclave while remaining convinced of my innocence,” he said in a statement through his attorneys.
Cardinals attend a mourning Mass for late Pope Francis on the fourth day of Novendiali (nine days of mourning after the Pope’s funeral) at St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican on April 29, 2025. Photo by Stoyan Nenov/ Reuters
Who is eligible to become pope?
Any baptized Catholic male can be elected pope, regardless of whether they’re a member of the priesthood, according to canon law. The only requirement is that he must be ordained as a bishop upon accepting the election.
For the last 600-plus years, the College of Cardinals has picked one of their own. Expect the same outcome this time around, said the historians and professors of law and theology who spoke with PBS News.
How does voting work?
There’s no electronic voting in a papal election.
After each round of voting and once the paper ballots are cast and checked, they are burned. Smoke emerges from a chimney above the Sistine Chapel to signify that a round of voting has ended to the crowd waiting in St. Peter’s Square.
If the smoke is black, the cardinals have not reached a decision. White smoke signals that a new pope has been chosen.
Black smoke rises from the chimney on the Sistine Chapel in Saint Peter’s Square on March 13, 2013, indicating no decision. Photo by Max Rossi/ Reuters
Why are conclaves so secretive?
The rules of the conclave call on the cardinals to enlist “two trustworthy technicians” to ensure “no audiovisual equipment for recording or transmitting has been installed by anyone” in the Sistine Chapel or any adjacent areas. Meanwhile, the cardinals must “refrain from written correspondence and from all conversations, including those by telephone or radio,” with anyone outside the conclave.
Up until the early 20th century, Catholic monarchs asserted that they had the power to object to the cardinals’ choice for pope. “They had cardinals who would represent their interests and could veto a selection,” said Charles J. Reid Jr., a law professor at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis.
Pope Pius X fully prohibited the practice in 1904. “Ever since then, you’ve had this tremendous worry that someone could communicate inside the College of Cardinals and influence the outcome,” Reid said. “You want the outcome to be the pure working of the internal dynamics of the College of Cardinals.”
The secrecy of the process “is to help prevent, on the one hand, political and other entities having an influence as much as possible,” Jeffrey Morrow, a professor of theology at Franciscan University of Steubenville, said, as well as “to emphasize for the faithful that this is a decision of the Holy Spirit, so that we don’t look at this too politically, we don’t over politicize it.”
Saint Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican is silhouetted during sunset in Rome, not long before Roman Catholic Cardinals began their conclave inside the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel Tuesday to elect a new pope. Photo by Paul Hanna/ Reuters
What happens once the conclave selects a pope?
Once a pope is elected, he is asked if he accepts his “canonical election as Supreme Pontiff” and to select his papal name.
The new pope is led to the “Room of Tears” in the Sistine Chapel, named for the overwhelming emotion past pontiffs have experienced. There, he dresses in white robes and receives a new pectoral cross and white zucchetto, or head cap. The cardinals greet the new pope and pledge their obedience to him.
Traditionally, the senior-most cardinal deacon in the College of Cardinals tells the crowd in St. Peter’s Square and the millions of people watching elsewhere, “Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum; Habemus Papam.” (“I announce to you a great joy: We have a pope.”)
Moments later, the new pope delivers a blessing to the crowd from one of the balconies of St. Peter’s Basilica.
