{"id":135321,"date":"2025-04-27T19:53:44","date_gmt":"2025-04-27T19:53:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/when-will-a-new-pope-be-chosen-timeline-of-the-papal-conclave-usa-today\/"},"modified":"2025-04-27T19:53:44","modified_gmt":"2025-04-27T19:53:44","slug":"when-will-a-new-pope-be-chosen-timeline-of-the-papal-conclave-usa-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/when-will-a-new-pope-be-chosen-timeline-of-the-papal-conclave-usa-today\/","title":{"rendered":"When will a new pope be chosen? Timeline of the papal conclave – USA Today"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hundreds of thousands of mourners<\/a> were gathering at the Vatican<\/a> to honor the life<\/a> of Pope Francis<\/a> on Saturday morning. But not long after the celebration of life concludes, senior officials of the Catholic Church will meet to discuss his successor.
After spending the majority of the year at Rome’s Gemelli\u00a0Hospital, Pope Francis<\/a> died on Easter Monday from a\u00a0stroke and irreversible heart failure<\/a>. He was 88 years old.
Francis’ funeral<\/a>, which took place at 10 a.m. local time<\/a> (4 a.m. ET) on Saturday in St. Peter’s Square<\/a>, the large plaza in Vatican City. More than 200,000 mourners were expected to be in attendance, USA TODAY previously reported, including world leaders like U.S. President Donald Trump<\/a>, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy<\/a> and former U.S. President Joe Biden<\/a>.
As the papacy remains vacant, here’s what to know about the selection of the new pope.
The selection of a new pope is completed by what is known as a papal conclave<\/a>.
A conclave is held by the College of Cardinals, which is made up of bishops and Vatican officials who were selected by the pope. During a conclave, this group of leaders begins by discussing the needs and challenges facing the Catholic Church. Then, the cardinals gather in St. Peter’s Basilica to invoke the guidance of the Holy Spirit about who should be the successor, according to the\u00a0United States Conference of Catholic Bishops<\/a>.
Before the election begins, the cardinals enter the Sistine Chapel, take an oath of secrecy and seal the church’s doors, meaning only the electors are allowed inside.
As for the election itself, each cardinal votes by secret ballot. He says a prayer and then drops a twice-folded ballot in a large chalice, according to the\u00a0United States Conference of Catholic Bishops<\/a>.
Four rounds of voting are completed each day until one candidate receives two-thirds of the vote.
Typically, a conclave is held 15-20 days after a papal vacancy, according to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops<\/a>.
However, the length of a conclave is dependent on how long it takes for one candidate to receive two-thirds of the cardinals’ votes.
The longest conclave in history lasted nearly three years (34 months, to be exact) with the election of Pope Gregory X in 1271, according to the Vatican’s news agency, EWTN Vatican<\/a>. On the flip side, Pope Francis<\/a> was elected just one day after the conclave began in 2013.
Though conclaves are held in secret, members of the general public are informed of the cardinals’ decision each day by black or white smoke<\/a> that billows from atop the Sistine Chapel.
If one candidate doesn’t receive the necessary two-thirds vote for the day, the ballots are burned in a stove mixed with chemicals to produce black smoke. This indicates another day of voting ahead.
If a candidate is selected, the ballots are burned with chemicals to produce white smoke.
Afterward, the senior cardinal deacon will announce the new pope from the balcony of St. Peter’s.
Contributing: Eric Lagatta, USA TODAY<\/em>
Greta Cross is a national trending reporter at USA TODAY. Story idea? Email her at\u00a0gcross@usatoday.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Hundreds of thousands of mourners were gathering at the Vatican to honor the life of Pope Francis on Saturday morning. But not long after the celebration of life concludes, senior officials of the Catholic Church will meet to discuss his successor.After spending the majority of the year at Rome’s Gemelli\u00a0Hospital, Pope Francis died on Easter […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":135322,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-135321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}