Vatican: Conclave, armored and secluded from the outside world

Works at the Sistine Chapel (Claudio Peri / Ansa)
di Stella Prudente
3 Minuti di Lettura
Sabato 9 Marzo 2013, 16:22 - Ultimo aggiornamento: 16:23
VATICAN CITY - Average age 72 years old, mostly Europeans. The 115 cardinal electors are now ready to vote for the new Pope and will enter the Sistine Chapel under Michelangelo's Last Judgement next Tuesday: the “extra omnes”, that formally start the voting process, will trigger for the cardinals a regime of total seclusion. The perimeter around the residence of Santa Marta and the Apostolic palace has already been cleaned up. Hard controls and shields will prevent any attempt to communicate with the outside world: a Faraday cage – similar to those used for international summits or military operations – will black out any contact through cell phones or wireless network. Supervision shall be non-stop even if the eminences, as the Vatican spokesman Father Lombardi underlined, will not be subject to inspection and searches. Instead, electors will be monitored and “protected in their itinerary from Santa Marta to the Sistine Chapel to avoid encounters or approaches” as required by the new motu proprio by Ratzinger. The Cardinals are thus forced to a comprehensive and shared agreement. This is not easy, if you think that they are representing all the instances of the universal Church.











Delegations. Italy is the most represented country in the Conclave with 28 electors. It is followed by the United States which have 11 cardinals and Germany with 6. The oldest is German Walter Kasper who turned 80 on March 5, just before the start of the conclave but after the start of the sede vacante. The prize for the youngest goes to the 53 years old Indian Thottunkal Cleemis Baselios, Archbishop of Trivandrum in Kerala. The cardinals under 60 are five: apart from the Indian, there are the Dutch Willem Jacobus Eijk, Germans Reinhard Marx and Rainer Maria Woelki and Luis Antonio Tagle from the Philippines. More than half of the voters are from Europe, the Old Continent is represented by some 60 cardinals. Followed by Latin America with 19 representatives, North America with 14, Africa with 11 and Asia with 10. There’s also one emissary from Oceania: Australia’s George Pell.



Congregations. The most represented congregations are Salesians and Franciscans, who have four cardinal electors each (Don Bosco’s followers include Bertone, Amato, Farina and Maradiaga, while the franciscans are the Brazilian Hummes, the Spaniard Vallejo, the South African Napier and the American Capuchin O'Malley). The influence of Benedict XVI will definitely be strong with 58% of the cardinals created by the Pope Emeritus, and only 48 eminences that were created by his predecessor.



Last rituals. On the morning of March 12 there will be a Mass. Then in the afternoon, as explained in the Apostolic Constitution Universi Dominici Gregis: “From the Pauline Chapel of the Apostolic Palace, where they will assemble at a suitable hour in the afternoon, the Cardinal electors, in choir dress, and invoking the assistance of the Holy Spirit with the chant of the Veni Creator, will solemnly process to the Sistine Chapel of the Apostolic Palace, where the election will be held”. The procession will just be few meters long and take place within the Sala Regia.
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