On February 11, 2013, the 265th Pope, Joseph Ratzinger, announced his resignation as Pope. So a new pope must now be elected, but how does that procedure actually work? Who can become Pope? What is involved in such an election?
The election procedure
On February 11, 2013, the 265th Pope, Joseph Ratzinger, announced that he would step down as Pope after an eight-year pontificate. So there must be a new pope. How exactly does such an election procedure work?
After the death or in this case the resignation of the pope, a vote for a new pope, also called the Conclave, must have begun within 20 days. This vote takes place in the Sistine Chapel, which is located in Vatican City. the chapel was built between 1473 and 1481 and contains ceiling paintings by Michelangelo. There will be one vote on the first voting day. On subsequent days, 4 voting rounds will be held per day. If no new pope has been elected after 30 rounds of voting, it may be decided to ordain the person who received the majority of votes as the new pope. Otherwise, it is simply the person who receives at least 80 of the 120 votes in one voting round, or two-thirds of the votes. The Conclave is led by the cardinal chamberlain, also called camerlengo. This camerlengo is assisted by three tellers. Then all 120 are required to enter their vote on the ballot paper, where Eligo is written in Summum Pontificem, which means I elect Pope. When the cardinal has completed his vote, he folds the note with the longest side lengthwise and holds it in the air, after which he walks to the altar. He then places his vote on a platter, after which he slips the note into a chalice. The tellers count the notes and put them in a second chalice. One teller then reads out the names, after which they are recorded on a form. The number of names of the same person are then added together and entered on a separate form. The ballots are still checked by three different cardinals. The ballot papers are then strung on a string, after which they are burned. The added chemicals to the cord cause either black or white smoke to come out of the chapel’s chimney. If black smoke comes out of the chimney it means that voting has stopped and if white smoke comes out of the chimney it means that a new pope has been elected. The cardinal must be younger than 80 years old to participate in the election and may come from any continent.
From citizen to pope
Actually, anyone can become pope. Unless you’re a woman. A woman cannot become a priest and may not have an important task within the church. Below is a brief step-by-step plan of how to become pope.
- You must be the first to be baptized within the Roman Catholic Church. If you come from a Roman Catholic family, you have often been baptized as a baby, but if this is not the case, it does not matter, because you can also be baptized at a later age.
- Then you make your First Holy Communion. You will then participate in your first Catholic worship service, also called the Eucharist.
- After this comes the confirmatio, which is Latin for confirmation. In doing so you literally say: ,I confirm,, with which you promise to live as a Roman Catholic.
- This is an important step and also the most decisive choice you have to make. You have to really want it. If you want to become a priest or even pope, you have to live a celibate life, which means that you are not allowed to have sex, a relationship or marriage.
- Now that you have decided to become a priest, you go to a seminary, where you are trained to become a priest. At the end of your training you will be ordained as a priest by a bishop.
- You will now do parish work, which means you can be appointed as a pastor.
- A diocese is a larger area that you can govern. If you are in between, they call it a deanery. If you are chairman of the deanery, you are called a dean.
- The next step is to manage a diocese, which means you become a bishop. This can also be right after the pastor. So you don’t necessarily have to have been dean first. The administrator of the archdiocese, of which there is one per country, is the chairman of all bishops in that country.
- During the consistoire, a special church meeting, the pope appoints new cardinals. It is impossible to say in advance when such a consistory will take place. This depends on the number of cardinals that are active.
- And now the last step. When a pope dies or in the case of 2013 with Benedict XVI resigning, there must be a new pope. A new pope is elected from the cardinals via the above procedure.
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- Benedict XVI; the 265th Pope (2005-2013)
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