So, when the pope dies...

they vote after he dies...i believe....

however, i fear the depth of the rabbit hole behind why you're asking.....

There's a shortlist, of course, however the matter will be decided, upon either the death or the rather less likely abdication-for-reason-of-health, of the Pope. A convocation of Cardinals will be called; essentially the Cardinals from throughout the world will meet, debate, and vote in secret. The process frequently is lengthy and volatile, and not infrequently resolves to a surprise. Their decision, when it comes, will be revealed shortly after we see the white Smoke over The Vatican

Thus the expression, "Holy smoke".

I'm betting that (holy smoke, is it okay to bet on who the next pope will be; probably so, Catholics play a lot of bingo and stuff) the next pope will be an old guy from South America.
I'm not being frivolous. Ten years or so from that heavily Catholic continent would breathe new energy into a church too long dominated by Europeans.

haha, anyone see Eurotrip?

Sheesh, mention the Pope and Jo gets slinky.

you're my favorite poster

Stop it!

i watched the Godfather Part 3.
In that the pope was voted.

I have a hazy memory of reading somewhere that there is a prophecy that this will be the last pope. Some believe that the Dali Lhama will also be the last of that line.

Of course, I'm convinced that all prophecy is bosh. That's why I didn't pay enough attention to "lock" those two stories into memory. It came to mind just now as the possible setting for a story. Maybe I'll find some time to noodle it.

Having a bad streak of trying to get questions answered correctly when asked, I'll pitch in.

There are contingencies should the Pope abdicate. However that has not happened yet, ever.

When the Pope dies there will be nine days of official mourning and prayers. Officially the Church will offer a Novena, nine days of prayer, for the Pope because, having been so important and powerful in life, he may have committed some really bad sins.

During the nine days the Cardinals who are eligible to be elected will travel to Rome. It used to be all the Cardinals, but recent changes have excluded those over seventy. I think that's the age. As well as those in ill health where they can't participate in the deliberations or could not be expected to withstand the stresses of being Pope.

Once all the elegible, and therefore voting, Cardinals are assembled they will process formally to the Sistine Chapel and be locked in. The locking in is where the term Conclave originated. Supposedly no one else will be in the chapel. What happens in the chapel is held in the same secrecy as the confessional. No one, to the knowledge of the scholars I have heard from, ever has talked about what goes on inside. I have a few questions of logistics, such as how to they get their food, where are the facilities, beds, showers, etc.

Occasionally votes will be taken. I have read everywhere from twice a day to whenever they feel like it. I don't knowt that the rules require any particular rate of voting.

After each vote a fire is started and all of the ballots are burned. If there is no complete agreement, then chemicals are added to the smoke to make sure it is black.

When all the voting cardinals agree on one man, there are no women priests at this time, the ballots are also burned, but with chemicals to make the smoke white.

There is a period of time and then the doors are unsealed and the cardinals escort the new Pope out to meet the crowds. He is escorted to the Papal chambers and preparations are made for his coronation mass.

After the mass the new Pope will appear on the famous balcony to greet his flock and give appropriate blessings.

That is it in a nutshell. It doesn't discuss all the machinations, politics, and side discussions that are going on now, and will go on until the end of the Papacy.

I don't have much of an argument with the person who suggested that a Pope from South America would be an excellent change from the European Popes. I would note however, that this Pope is a significant change from the past because he is not from Italy, but is only the second or third non-Italian. My personal, very old lessons, recollection is that the first non-Italian Pope only lasted thirty days. I've always suspected foul play, but have absolutely no proof.

Hope this helps,
Kelly

John-Paul the First (Albino Luciani) lasted only a month in 1978... being "a liberal", he curiously died and left the papal throne vacant for Mother Church's more conservative faction to replace him with ANTI-COMMUNIST Polish "Patriot" Karol Wotyla.

Rumors surrounded the circumstances of John-Paul I's passing... Autopsies are FORBIDDEN upon Papal corpses, which are sealed in leaden caskets and interred beneath Saint Peter's Basilica.

Some suspect that a Rogue Agency (much like the one that organized the illegal Iran-Contra scheme) had a hand in the affair.
Any substantial evidence to support such a claim has been efficiently obscured or eradicated.

"Plus ça change... "

Nice piece of off the cuff writing there, KellyS. Welcome to A2K..

Joe

Something stuck in my head from the days of East Catholic High regarding Papal abdication:

here from the Catholic Encyclopedia--

Church history furnishes a number of examples of papal abdications. Leaving aside the obscure case of Pope Marcellinus (296-308) adduced by Pezzani, and the still more doubtful resignation of Pope Liberius (352-366) which some historians have postulated in order to solve the perplexing position of Pope Felix II, we may proceed to unquestioned abdications.

Pope Benedict IX (1033-44), who had long caused scandal to the Church by his disorderly life, freely renounced the pontificate and took the habit of a monk. He repented of his abdication and seized the papal throne again for a short time after the death of Pope Clement II, but he finally died in a private station.

His immediate successor, Pope Gregory VI (1044-46) furnishes another example of papal Abdication. It was Gregory who had persuaded Benedict IX to resign the Chair of Peter, and to do so he had bestowed valuable possessions upon him. After Gregory had himself become Pope, this transaction was looked on by many as simoniacal; and although Gregory's intentions seem to have been of the best, yet it was deemed better that he too should abdicate the papal dignity, and he did so voluntarily.

The classic example of the resignation of a Pope is that of St. Celestine V (1294). before his election to the pontificate, he had been a simple hermit, and his sudden elevation found him unprepared and unfit for his exalted position. After five months of pontificate, he issued a solemn decree in which he declared that it was permissible for the Pope to abdicate, and then made an equally solemn renunciation of the papacy into the hands of the cardinals. He lived two years after his abdication in the practice of virtues which afterwards procured his canonization.

Owing to the troubles which evil minded persons caused his successor, Boniface VIII, by their theories about the impossibility of a valid Abdication of the papal throne, Boniface issued the above-cited decree to put the matter at rest for all time.

The latest instance of a papal resignation is that of Pope Gregory XII (1406-15). It was at the time of the Great Schism of the West, when two pretenders to the Chair of Peter disputed Gregory's right, and rent the faithful into three so-called "obediences". To put an end to the strife, the legitimate Pope Gregory renounced the pontificate at the General Council of Constance in 1415.

It is well known that Pope Pius VII (1800-23), before setting out for Paris to crown Napoleon in 1804, had signed an abdication of the papal throne to take effect in case he were imprisoned in France (De Montor).

Finally, a valid Abdication of the Pope must be a free act, hence a forced resignation of the papacy would be null and void, as more than one ecclesiastical decree has declared.

The illegality/illegitimacy (and hence impermanence) of a forced resignation make it necessary for the powerful to "eliminate" pontiffs they find undesireable... in a more PERMANENT fashion.
I cast no aspersions upon the current Pontiff... but I have my doubts about the faction that supported his candidacy.

Highly placed sources inside the Vatican tell us that the Pope's Last Will and testament makes the Dalai Lama his full spiritual heir. Rather than convene a gaggle of Cardinals, the Church of Rome will merge into the Tibetan School of Tantric Buddhism. A Papal jet is kept on standby alert to bring his Holiness from India to take up residence in Rome at a moment's notice. A spokesman for the Dalai Lama had no comment at this time.

I understand, however, that the documentation proving this will be revealed next week on 60 Minutes.

one of Nostradamus' prophecies says that the next pope will be the last and will die in France.

I read a fascinating and at times quite disturbing book a few years ago, and yes i take the prophecies with a large pinch of salt - but one quatrain was scarily accurate about Hitler, naming his birthplace, saying that his voice would sway millions and thousands die in ovens - in ovens not exactly vague and non specific or to be expected,

We are also in a time of immense change according to Nostradamus and a new and better order will come out of it ... well let's hope that one's true (it did say that in between times Moslems would rule - terror rather than actual rule???)

A Brahmin friend said that Hindu scriptures also foretell something similar as they are coming to the end of a cycle