Pope John Paul ll has died

[lady cop]

the AP has just reported the Pope has passed away.

[Beth]

I didn't agree with him in some things, but I respected him and appreciated the way he saught peace. There were many times I agreed with him and many times I didn't. But in all, I feel that he really did love people and saught to show compassion.

[Ensign Steve]

What happens next? Did they already have a successor lined up, or are we Pope-less until they elect a new one? Is there an interim Pope?

[ceptimus]

There is a whole ritual to electing a new pope. The people who are entitled to vote are all sealed inside a building, and they're not let out until the new pope is declared. They send out smoke signals (I'm not kidding) to let people know how they're getting on. They have a way of making the smoke black or white, and that means something - I forget what.

When we used to have a new pope every few months, this got to be quite boring, but as this last pope has lasted so long, you youngsters won't be used to the procedure.

It never fails to amaze me how ordinary people can so easily accept what these religious types get up to. All those old guys in fancy dresses, waving special valuable objects about and talking in the way they do. If it were a new idea, they'd be dismissed as cultists or loonies, but as it's been going on for hundreds of years it is somehow accepted as normal.

[TomJoe]

What happens next? Did they already have a successor lined up, or are we Pope-less until they elect a new one? Is there an interim Pope?

Three men, the Vicar of Rome (2nd in charge of the Diocese of Rome - Cardinal Ruini), the Dean of the College of Cardinals (Cardinal Ratzinger), and the Pope's appointed 2nd in command at the Vatican (I cannot remember his name at the moment but he's called the Carmelengo) run the day to day activities. Their primary duties are to arrange the Papal funeral and then call and direct the conclave.

The Cardinals who are under 80 years of age, after the 9 days of mourning, and waiting more like 15 for all the Cardinals to arrive, will enter the Sistine Chapel and four times a day (2 in the morning, 2 in the afternoon) will vote for a new Pope. The election must start within 20 days of the death of the Pope. A 2/3 majority is needed for election over the first 13 days. If it goes after 13 days, an absolute majority (50% +1) is needed to elect a new Pope.

Everytime a vote is held, the ballots are counted and if a Pope is not elected, a chemical is added to the ballots and burned. Black smoke will issue from the Sistine Chapel flue. This signifies to the people outside in St. Peters Square that they still do not have a Pope. If a Pope is elected, he is asked if he wishes to be Pope. If he accepts, the ballots are burned and white smoke issues from the flue. The Pope is then fitted for his vestments while the Dean of the College of Cardinals will go to pronounce to the Catholics: Habemus Papam! (We have a Pope!) Then, the Pope will be presented to those in St. Peters Square.

In total, the Catholic Church will be without a Pope for about two to three weeks. I do not expect the electoral process going on for very long.

[livius drusus]

The period of official mourning last 9 days. John Paul II will be layed out in state in St. Peter's for 2 days and then buried in the crypt along with many, many of his predecessors.

I had a thought today. This will be the first Conclave in almost 500 years to see the Sistine Chapel frescos the way Michelangelo first made them. They were tampered with -- fig leaves covering the naughty bits, mainly -- almost right away.

Oh, and cep, they don't lock them in anymore.

[TomJoe]

Oh, and cep, they don't lock them in anymore.

Nope, they don't anymore. They used to be locked in to prevent the elections from going on for too long. However, if any Cardinal leaks to the press "how things are going" the penalty is immediate excommunication.

[livius drusus]

Then there was that time they had the Conclave in Viterbo which lasted for 3 years until the city magistrates tore the roof off the building and kept the cardinals on bread and water. Of course that was in the 13th century, but Viterbo is still very proud of that particular claim to fame.

[Ymir's blood]

One of the Holy Roman Emperors not only locked them but denied the cardinals food in order to speed up the selection process. :giggle:

[Sauron]

I just heard something interesting and a little scary.

One of the potential candidate cardinals is a convert from Judaism. In some of the more rabid types of protestant isolationist theology (think Jack Chick or Bob Jones University), the RCC is considered to be the Church of the Beast of Revelation. Jews and Catholics are supposed to conspire at the end of time to try and thwart the kingdom of Christ and the Second Coming. The appointment of this cardinal as pope would definitely cause a particular faction of redneck evangelicals to go bat-shit.

Also for the Nostradamus types, according to one popular reading of the Nostradamus quattrains, the next pope is supposedly the last pope before the end of the world.

[Ensign Steve]

The appointment of this cardinal as pope would definitely cause a particular faction of redneck evangelicals to go bat-shit.

Oooh! Fun! :twisted: