The 133 cardinals who will choose the new Pope lock each other from May 7 in the Sistine Chapel, before the Fresco of the final judgment of Miguel Ángel and where everything is already prepared, said the director of the Vatican Museums, Barbara Jatta.
In an appearance before the media, Jatta made a historical and artistic tour of the chapel and showed how that enclosure and some attached rooms have been, closed since last April 28 to prepare the conclave.
“The cardinals will have the responsibility of their vote under the vault” (with the frescoes of Miguel Ángel’s Genesis) and in the face of the final judgment of the same Renaissance artist, in a work that Pope Julio II commissioned him and that he carried out between 1508 and 1512.
The sloping will occupy the side walls and one of the funds in two rows – the opposite of the Wall of the Last Judgment – so everyone will have those fresh visible, according to the video broadcast by the Holy See.
According to Jatta, some elements of the chapel have been removed to, apart from installing the seats and the urn where they will vote, allow the installation of the smoke output to the chimney, with which the choice of the new Pope is announced, provided that the smoke is white.
“It is the most famous chapel in the world, a holy and symbolic place for history, art and faith,” said the head of the Vatican museums, who explained that the first time a conclave was held there was in 1492, for the election of Alejandro VI, although the Cardinal Meeting has been held in different places and only since 1996 is the final headquarters, as John Paul II established through the apostolic Constitution.
Jatta said that the last days, of preparation of the Sistine, have been “intense from the emotional point of view,” after the death of Pope Francis, but taken “with a spirit of service.”
The Sistine Chapel received about seven million visitors in 2024, recalled its director, who stressed that the frescoes of its walls are not only from Miguel Ángel, but also from some of the greatest artists of the fifteenth century, such as Botticelli, Ghirlandaio, Perugino and Pinturicchio.
The images and videos disseminated on Tuesday also show the so -called Hall of Tears, where the future Pontiff awaits three papal costumes of different size and that is a room where, according to tradition, the newly chosen chief of the Catholic Church could vent his nervousness with crying.
Live broadcast
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xztlgnf7bs
Brazilian cardinals “want” a Pope capable of responding to hunger and conflicts
The Brazilian cardinals want a Pope who can respond to the challenges of today, such as hunger and conflicts, and guides a society that “lives marked by fear,” the president of the Brazilian Episcopate, Jaime Spengler, said Tuesday from the Vatican.
“We want someone in tune with the Gospel, who is able to respond to the challenges of the present time, such as hunger and conflicts,” Spengler said, also Archbishop of Porto Alegre, to the Brazilian television channels in the Vatican.
“Eu I imagine that Em dois ou três days perhaps cool a Um nome of consensus,” said Dom Jaime Spengler, Arsto de Porto Alegre and President of CNBB, on or conclave to choose or novo leader of Catholic Igreja. Ele sumumiu or feeling nesta terça-feira (6): “A Primeira Palavra… pic.twitter.com/MGQIIQZB9P
– Globonews (@globonews) May 6, 2025
May 6, 2025, 18: 00h
Bolivia bishops are confident that the new Pope will be a “point of union” with the world
The Catholic bishops of Bolivia expressed their confidence on Tuesday that the successor of Pope Francis will be a “point of union” within that church and “with the entire world”, on the eve of the start of the conclave to choose the new pontiff.
The president of the Bolivian Episcopal Conference (CEB), Aurelio Pesoa, told the media that they have asked for sentences “worldwide” so that the cardinals who participate in the conclave “open their minds and their hearts” and that the “Holy Spirit inspires them in the choice of a new pastor for the church.”