The Vatican spokesman reported the date, while the Vatican Museum announced the closure of the Sistine Chapel, the majestic stay adorned with the cool famous of Miguel Ángel, located in the Apostolic Palace.
The cardinals will participate next Wednesday in a solemn mass in the Basilica of San Pedro del Vaticano, after which those who are entitled to vote – 80 -year -old men – become locked up to vote in a secret process that can last several days.
The first Latin American pontiff was buried on Saturday after a solemn goodbye in the presence of international leaders and 400 thousand people.
The cardinals were summoned to Rome to choose the new Pope. Of the total of 135 with the right to vote – because they are under 80 years old – 80% were designated by Francisco.
But they come from all over the world and many are not known.
“Open personality”
Patricia Spotti hopes that the new Pontiff “be like the Pope who died.” “It must have an open personality for all,” this 68 -year -old woman who traveled from Milan to Rome for the Holy Year held this 2025 told AFP.
Many faithful fear that the new Pope is a step back with respect to the legacy of the Argentine Jesuit, marked by the fight against sexual abuses to minors in the Church, for a greater place for women and laity and by the defense of poor and migrants.
“Our desire is to find someone who looks like Francisco, who is not the same but in continuity,” Argentine Ángel Sixto Rossi, 66, told the press.
“It’s hard to say how we imagine the profile of the new Pope,” said Italian Cardinal Giuseppe Versaldi, 83, without the right to vote. There must be “continuity but also advance in front, not only repeat the past.”
The Spanish cardinal José Cobo told El País that it will not be “anything predictable.”
As in the movie
The conclave has aroused fascination for centuries.
Edwar Berger’s recent homonymous film, which won in March with the Oscar for the best adapted script, popularized it even more.
“More than half of us will live our first conclave. It is an opportunity to show the world that films such as ‘Conclave’ and other similar ones are not reality,” said Spanish cardinal Cristóbal López Romero to the official media Vatican News.
The film takes place during the choice process of a new Pope, in closed door meetings. The fictional story plays with the tensions between Vatican’s factions.
But divisions within the Church are not a fiction. The reforms promoted by Francisco and his simple style aroused criticism among the most conservative sectors, which are committed to a change more focused on doctrine.
“Today we need to unite, do not divide,” said Mali Cardinal Jean Zerbo, 81, after a prayer of the sloping before Francisco’s tomb.
The bets
The German Cardinal Reinhard Marx awaits a conclave of just “a few days.”
But Roberto Regoli, professor at the Gregorian Pontifical University, believes it will not be fast. “We are in a period in which Catholicism is experiencing several polarizations” and the cardinals must “find someone who knows how to forge a greater unit,” he said.
With diplomatic conflicts and crises extending around the world, the Italian Pietro Parolin appears as one of the favorite “papables.” This cardinal served as Secretary of State with Francisco after being a nuncio in Venezuela.
The British betting house William Hill puts it ahead of the Filipino Luis Antonio Tagle, followed by Cardinal Ghanés Peter Turkson and also Italian Matteo Zuppi.