Formal procession to Sistine Chapel under way
The formal procession to the Sistine Chapel is starting now in the Pauline Chapel in the Vatican.
You can follow the texts in Latin and Italian here.
The procession will be led not by the dean of the College of Cardinals, Giovanni Battista Re (as he is too old to take part in the conclave), but by Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state, who is also one of the leading contenders to be selected as the next pope.
Here is his profile, by Harriet Sherwood and Sam Jones:
Parolin is seen as a moderate “continuity candidate”, as he was close to Francis. He has been the Vatican’s secretary of state since 2013, playing a key role in diplomatic affairs, including delicate negotiations with China and governments in the Middle East.
He is regarded as a reliable and trusted papal representative by secular diplomats.
In 2018, he was the driving force behind a controversial agreement with the Chinese government on the appointment of bishops, criticised by some as a sellout to the communist regime.
Parolin’s critics see him as a modernist and a pragmatist who places ideology and diplomatic solutions above hard truths of the faith. To his supporters, he is a courageous idealist and avid proponent of peace.
Key events
Jakub Krupa
Just a reminder that you can watch the procession on the live stream at the top of this page.
Neighbouring with the Sistine Chapel, Pauline Chapel is also where officials and staff assigned to work around the conclave took an oath of secrecy earlier this week, a key obligation for performing their role during the election process.
Formal procession to Sistine Chapel under way
The formal procession to the Sistine Chapel is starting now in the Pauline Chapel in the Vatican.
You can follow the texts in Latin and Italian here.
The procession will be led not by the dean of the College of Cardinals, Giovanni Battista Re (as he is too old to take part in the conclave), but by Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state, who is also one of the leading contenders to be selected as the next pope.
Here is his profile, by Harriet Sherwood and Sam Jones:
Parolin is seen as a moderate “continuity candidate”, as he was close to Francis. He has been the Vatican’s secretary of state since 2013, playing a key role in diplomatic affairs, including delicate negotiations with China and governments in the Middle East.
He is regarded as a reliable and trusted papal representative by secular diplomats.
In 2018, he was the driving force behind a controversial agreement with the Chinese government on the appointment of bishops, criticised by some as a sellout to the communist regime.
Parolin’s critics see him as a modernist and a pragmatist who places ideology and diplomatic solutions above hard truths of the faith. To his supporters, he is a courageous idealist and avid proponent of peace.
Angela Giuffrida
The sun has come out and pilgrims are beginning to file into St Peter’s Square ahead of the beginning of conclave.
A huge group of pilgrims from Sardinia sang hymns as they walked along Via della Conciliazione, the main street connecting Rome with the Vatican.
Waiting on the edge of the square was Cinzia Caporali and her husband, from Tuscany. They came to Rome to visit Pope Francis’ tomb at Santa Maria Maggiore basilica in the Esquilino neighbourhood, and are now eagerly waiting to hear who the new pope will be.
“I hope it will be a continuation of Francis,” said Caporali. “He was for the marginalised people, and we need to make sure this continues. We don’t want to see the flashy richness of the church, this is no longer in fashion.”
Caporali was living in Rome when the German cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected pope in April 2005. “I was in a caffe not far away and people were shouting ‘fatto, fatto, fatto!’ (it’s done), then I went outside and saw the white smoke.”
Jakub Krupa
Let’s bring you the latest from our Rome correspondent Angela Giuffrida.
Brief history of conclaves past
Harriet Sherwood
Selecting a new pope has always been an arduous process, but some conclaves seemed to suffer more than others.
It wasn’t always this way: in the past, letters, diaries and other writings by cardinals and their attendants gave revealing accounts of what happened in the meetings convened in order to choose a pope.
Here, with the help of the historians Vanessa Corcoran of Georgetown University in Washington and Miles Pattenden of the University of Oxford, we look at some of the more noteworthy conclaves from the past.
‘Keep us in your prayers,’ New York archbishop says before going into conclave
Archbishop of New York, Timothy Dolan, is one of the 133 electors who will go into the Sistine Chapel in the next hour to start the process of selecting the pope.
The 75-year-old posted a short video update on social media:
This is the day we enter the conclave and I’m about to go into the Domus Sanctae Marthae, named after St. Martha, who took care of hospitality for Jesus.
We leave here and go over to the Sistine Chapel every day for prayers and voting, but this is where we reside.
I won’t be able to talk to you until you see the white smoke.
Keep us in your prayers!
Jakub Krupa
We have now also added a live stream from the Vatican at the top of the page, showing St Peter’s Square and later the procession of the cardinals, which is expected to start in the next half hour.
I will bring you all the key updates here.
We will spend many hours in the coming days watching the chimney on the Sistine Chapel roof, waiting for that symbolic white smoke.
So, for the first time in today’s blog, here it is:
New pontiff will have to hit ground running on many urgent issues
Harriet Sherwood
From conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, to migration, the climate crisis and schisms in the church, the honeymoon period for the new pope will be short.
In the coming days, the Roman Catholic church will have a new leader, cheered by the faithful in St Peter’s Square. Once the prayers are over and the crowds have dispersed, what issues must the new pope grapple with?
Church unity
A key task will be to strengthen unity within the church amid growing polarisation in the world and different views and expectations within the church. Some observers believe there is a real risk of schism after 20 years in which there have been popes on either end of the spectrum: the traditional/conservative Benedict XVI, and the liberal/progressive Francis.
International diplomacy
The pope has an important role to play on the international stage, particularly to ensure that religion does not become a fault line. He will face ongoing conflicts in Ukraine, the Middle East and Sudan plus the politically divisive issues of migration, the climate crisis, religious freedom and human rights.
Sexual abuse
The legacy of sexual abuse cast a long shadow over Francis’s papacy. He was slow to grasp the scale and systemic nature of the problem, and at first did not understand the pain and anger of survivors. That pain has not gone away, and the new pope’s approach will inevitably come under intense scrutiny.
Governance
The new pope will need to take decisions on governance within the church, including the pace of change and levels of inclusion regarding laity and women. He will need to make key appointments within days to get the new papacy up and running.
Vatican finances
There are two aspects to this for the new pope’s attention: general oversight and transparency, on which there was significant progress under Pope Francis but still more to do; and the unsustainable levels of deficit in the Vatican finances, which deteriorated during Francis’s papacy.
Sexuality and identity
Francis shifted the church’s dial on issues relating to sexuality and identity, condemning discrimination against LGBTQ+ people, meeting trans men and women and authorising the blessings of same sex couples. Francis’s standpoint prompted a backlash among traditionalists, and the new pope will be watched closely for his views.
Read more about papal in-tray:
Vatican today – in pictures
Northern Italian town rooting for cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle
Angela Giuffrida
While there is much trepidation in the Vatican over who will be the next pope, residents in Brugherio, a town in the northern Italian region of Lombardy are equally awaiting the outcome with bated breath.
The town’s population is rooting for Luis Antonio Tagle, a cardinal from the Philippines, to be the successor to Pope Francis. Not because the cardinal, who is partial to a bit of karaoke, seems good fun, but because there is a link to the town: Tagle’s first cousin was the carer of the mayor’s grandmother.
Mayor Roberto Assi said Violetta cared for his grandmother for 10 years until the elderly woman’s death in 2018, but the connection has remained strong.
“We consider her to be part of the family,” Assi told the online newspaper, Prima Lamartesana. In fact, Violetta, who now lives in Milan, still joins the family to celebrate important occasions, such as Christmas, as well as his late grandmother’s birthday, which they continue to mark each year.
Assi said that Violetta often speaks of her cousin, “the cardinal”, and that many in Brugherio hope he will be elected pope.
Tagle, 67, is among the leading contenders, although he was accused of “heresy” by Catholic traditionalists after a video of him, filmed in 2019, singing John Lennon’s Imagine emerged on social media.
A watchdog for victims of clerical sexual abuse has also accused him of mishandling child sexual abuse claims in the Philippines.
Pope’s tailor Mancinelli takes no chances with three white vestments ready for new pontiff
Angela Giuffrida
It’s a wonder that Raniero Mancinelli, tailor to the last three popes, has had any time to cut any cloth over the past week given the amount of attention he’s been getting from the world’s press.
The Guardian spoke to him in February, when Pope Francis was severely ill in hospital, but could hardly get a foot inside the door on Wednesday morning.
“It’s been a little hectic,” said one of the tailor’s assistants.
It is not guaranteed that Mancinelli, who owns Mancinelli Clero, a historic shop in Borgo Pio, just steps away from St Peter’s Square, will be tasked with dressing the new pope.
There is another Rome rival and reports in the Italian press suggest that the Vatican has plenty of white cassocks and might well honour Francis’ message of frugality.
Still, Mancinelli is not taking any chances. He has already been preparing the white vestments that might be worn by the next pontiff, and has cut small, medium and large versions just in case.
There was a long queue of TV crews waiting to speak to Mancinelli, who was suited-up, with his tailor’s measuring tape draped over his shoulders as he showed them the material.
The reporters have also lured curious tourists into the shop, wondering what all the fuss is about.
Father Giuseppe, a customer of Mancinelli, understood: “This shop is famous because he is very good.”
Asked which qualities he would like to see in the next pope, other than being well-dressed, Father Giuseppe said: “We need someone good, and someone strong, especially at this moment in time.”
Jakub Krupa
Let’s now go across to our Rome correspondent Angela Giuffrida to get an idea of what’s going on in the Vatican…
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