All eyes are on Rome now!
After Pope Francis passed away last month, a new chapter awaits. A new pontiff is to be chosen to lead the Catholic church, who will be selected through an elaborate and illustrious process called ‘conclave’.
Now, a papal conclave is a gathering of the College of Cardinals convened to appoint the Bishop of Rome, also known as the pope. Catholics consider the pope to be the apostolic successor of Saint Peter and the earthly head of the Catholic Church.
But how long does a conclave last?
You’ll be surprised to know the longest one in history that stretched for years!
Read on to know more!
The conclave begins:
After Pope Francis passed away last month, the process of choosing a new leader for the Catholic church, the conclave, is formally underway at the Vatican. As per the rules, the doors at the Sistine Chapel have been locked to outsiders, beginning the secretive process culminating in a new pontiff.
However, May 7 (the first day of conclave, 2025) seems to have concluded without any fruition to that process, as the 133 cardinals failed to elect a new pope on the first day of the conclave. At the end of each voting session, the cardinals burn the ballots. Black smoke means the cardinals haven’t reached a consensus, and white smoke means there’s a new pope. At the end of the first day’s conclave, black smoke emanated from the chimney atop the Sistine Chapel this evening, indicating no new pope was elected during the first round of voting.
The cardinals will return to the Sistine Chapel on May 8, when there will be as many as four votes to choose a successor to Pope Francis.
How long does it take to elect a new Pope?
The papal conclave — a centuries-old process to select a new pope — must begin between 15 and 20 days after a pontiff's death. Pope Francis passed away on April 21, and his funeral service was held on April 26. The conclave to elect a new Pope has already begun from May 7.
Although ‘the sooner the better’ theory is applied everywhere and very diligently, there is no time limit set for how long a conclave can take. The cardinal electors continue to vote until a two-thirds-plus-one majority is achieved.
The shortest conclave on record was in 1503, when it took the cardinals only 10 hours to choose Pope Pius III as the new pontiff.
On the other hand, the longest conclave on record took nearly three years.
The election of a successor to Pope Clement IV in 1268 dragged on for so long — about 1,000 days — that locals in the town of Viterbo, where it was held, locked the cardinals in the room where they had gathered until they reached a decision. In fact, that is where the name of the process, ‘conclave’, comes from. This isolation is so important during the process of election that the name conclave comes from the Latin "cum clavis," which means "with key," indicating how the cardinal electors deliberate behind locked doors over who will be the new pope.
After that marathon conclave, Pope Gregory X was finally elected in September of 1271.
How long the conclave of 2025 is expected to be?
The last three popes have been elected in two or three days. In 2013, Pope Francis was elected after five ballots held over two days. In 2005, Pope Benedict XVI was elected after four ballots. In 1978, Pope John Paul II was elected over two days after eight ballots.
There is no way to predict how long a conclave will take, but guidance can perhaps be taken from recent history.
If the cardinals are at par with the recent patterns, the conclave of 2025 may well conclude in a couple of days, and we could expect a new pope before the next week commences.
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