Tag: conclave

Electing a pope: The voting rules explained

For those who have asked:

  • A 2/3 majority is required to elect a pope. All the time. No exceptions. (During the conclave that elected Benedict, the first few ballots were 2/3 and then the threshold dropped to a simple majority.)
  • There are four rounds of voting on any given day the cardinals are voting. Two in the morning and two in the afternoon. White smoke will come immediately after any ballot that produces a pope. Black smoke, though, only comes after every two ballots — once after the morning rounds, once after the afternoon rounds.

Here’s what the Vatican Press Office issued a few days ago which explains this in more detail: Continue reading Electing a pope: The voting rules explained

Hermits, nuns and priests: Tuesday morning mass at St. Peter's

Nun praying on St. Peter's Square
A nun prays on St. Peter’s Square, Tuesday morning, just hours before cardinals begin their first round of voting for the next pope. (DAVID AKIN/QMI Agency)

I’ve put up a collection of pictures I took this morning on St. Peter’s Square, including the one above, at my Facebook site. Continue reading Hermits, nuns and priests: Tuesday morning mass at St. Peter's

77 votes to become pope: Scola, Scherer, Ouellet leading the pack?

It’s election day — e-day – at the Vatican! The 115 cardinal-electors will enter the Conclave in the Sistine Chapel at 4:30  pm Rome time/1130 am Toronto time where — if they choose to — they will hold their first round of voting for pope. I say, “if they choose to” because they do have the option of putting off the first vote until Wednesday morning. Some here think it’s a possibility though an unlikely one.

Assuming there is a vote — and there will be only one round balloting today — the smoke signals announcing the result will likely waft to the heavens at about 8 pm Rome time/3 pm Eastern. Now, that’s the expectation for the timing of the first smoke signal but there is no hard-and-fast schedule. I will be on “smoke watch” here in Rome from about 5:30 pm (Rome time) onwards. Continue reading 77 votes to become pope: Scola, Scherer, Ouellet leading the pack?

A Pope from Toronto? Sizing up conclave politics

Cardinal Thomas Collins
ROME – Cardinal Thomas Collins laughs with Canadian reporters outside his church in Rome, San Patrizio on Sunday, March 10. Collins is one of three Canadian cardinals who will enter the conclave Tuesday at the Vatican to select a new pope. (DAVID AKIN/QMI Agency)

The Maple Leafs, Rob Ford and – the Pope?

Don’t look now, but the city Canadians love to hate has an outside chance to be the hometown of the Holy Father to the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics.

Granted, Toronto Cardinal Thomas Collins, 66, is a long-shot to win the two-thirds majority of his 115 fellow cardinals when they enter the conclave here Tuesday to begin the process to select a successor to Benedict XVI. But he has attracted some notice among the international press here who have him in the second-tier group of potential popes.

As for the man himself, he’s just happy to be a witness to one of the most historic papal elections ever. Continue reading A Pope from Toronto? Sizing up conclave politics