By Rebecca Ekpe
Approximately 1.4 billion Catholics around the world will mourn the passing of the 266th Leader of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis who died on Easter Monday at his residence at the Vatican Casa Santa Marta, in Rome, aged 88. A death certificate from the Vatican revealed the Pope died of stroke causing irreversible heart failure. The Pontiff made a last appearance on Easter Sunday at St Peter’s Square in a final message of hope, reflection and religious tolerance. There has been a global outpour of grief in tributes to the late Pope Francis. As the Vatican readies for the burial and funeral rites, there are questions of who replaces the Pontiff? And how will the new Pope be elected? Rebecca Ekpe has been researching.
As the world mourns the passing of Pope Francis, whose legacy has been echoed as an epitome of Servant Leadership, the Roman Catholic Church at the Vatican has commenced a series of rituals triggering what is known as the Interregnum, the intervention period between two papacies.
Among the traditions is the sealing off of the papal apartment, signifying the end of one chapter and the beginning of another. Also, the papal signet ring, a symbol of authority, is broken off with a hammer denoting the end of Pope Francis’ reign.
The next stage is known as the Novendial period, where the church goes into a 9-day period of mourning. With the Papal seat declared vacant, the College of Cardinal have begun the exercise to elect a new Pope. This highly spiritual activity is known as ‘’the Papal Conclave’’.
Within 15-20 days, Cardinals under 80 years, including Ghana’s own Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson will meet at the Vatican for the Conclave, a closed and secretive process to appoint the new Pope.
The cardinals are kept in the Sistine Chapel and then through a number of rounds, they will cast their votes. A candidate needs to get a two-thirds majority vote to be elected.
If none of them obtain sufficient votes in a round, black smoke emerges from the chimney of the chapel. While, a white smoke, on the other hand, indicates that there is a newly elected Pope.
After the election of the new Pope, a College of Cardinals’ representative will step out onto St. Peter’s Basilica main balcony to reveal the news to the waiting crowd of faithful in the words, “Habemus papam”, meaning “We have a Pope.”
The new Pope, who chooses a name that usually honors a Saint or a predecessor, will then deliver his first address to the public from the very balcony, where Pope Francis delivered his final address to the Catholic faithful.