The election of a pope follows centuries-old Vatican traditions. The College of Cardinals will vote in secret ballots inside the Sistine Chapel. A two-thirds majority is required to elect a new pope.

Cardinals have decided that the public viewing of Pope Francis will begin Wednesday in St. Peter’s Basilica, after his casket is taken by procession from the Vatican hotel where he lived.

Cardinals celebrate the Novendiales Masses on the fourth day of mourning for Pope Francis on April 29, 2025, in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican. (photo: Daniel Ibañez/CNA / EWTN) ...

The Vatican released video of cardinals, 220 of them, processing down the main aisle inside St. Peter's Basilica. This Mass, in particular, was meant to pray for the 133 voting cardinals who will ...

VATICAN CITY (AP) — With all the pomp, drama and solemnity that the Catholic Church can muster, 133 cardinals on Wednesday began the secretive, centuries-old ritual to elect a successor to Pope ...

The conclave to elect Pope Francis’ successor will start on May 7, the Vatican said on Monday following a closed-door meeting of cardinals at the Vatican, the first since Francis’ funeral on ...

The Vatican announced that the first meeting of the Congregation of Cardinals, the gathering of the cardinals currently in Rome, would occur Tuesday at 9 a.m. in the Vatican's synod hall.

Only Cardinals under the age of 80 are allowed to cast a vote for pope, under current Vatican rules. The Catholic Church has a list of the College of Cardinals and biographies for the 119 electors.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Cleaners and cooks. Doctors and nurses. Even drivers and elevator operators. The support staff for the cardinals who will elect the successor to Pope Francis took an oath of ...

Canadian Cardinal Francis Leo is approached by reporters as he arrives for a college of cardinals' meeting, at the Vatican, Wednesday, April 30, 2025.

— Cardinal Marc Ouellet of Canada, 80, head of the Vatican’s bishops office from 2010 to 2023. — Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn of Austria, 80, a student of Pope Benedict XVI, and thus ...