(Nexstar) – Pope Francis, the first Latin American pope in history, passed away after a lifelong dedication to the Catholic Church, the Vatican announced Monday.
Francis’ death comes just months after he was admitted to Gemeri Hospital in Rome due to a respiratory crisis that has led to dual pneumonia. He spent 38 days there – the longest hospitalization of the Pope of his 12 years – but he looked good enough to celebrate Holy Week, and he even blessed the followers at Easter Mass in St. Peters Square on the day he died.
Plans for Francis’ funeral have not yet been officially announced. However, according to years of Vatican tradition, the death of an 88-year-old clergyman drives the process of choosing a successor.
Upon the death of the Pope (or resignation), a group of clergy members known as the Cardinal of University will be convened in Rome for the Conclave to decide the next leader of the Catholic Church. During this interim period known as the “Interregnum”, Camerlengo (essentially the Vatican treasurer) acts as a temporary manager of the Holy See.
Camerlengo is Cardinal Kevin Joseph Farrell, the same official who announced Francis’ death on Monday morning.
Currently, Cardinals University has 252 members. This includes Vatican officials and bishops from around the world. Most of their members are in Europe (114), but dozens of them are in Asia (37), South America (32), Africa (29), and North America (28), respectively. Central America (8) and Oceania (4) are the fewest members.
Of these 252 members, only members under the age of 80 are permitted to vote for the next Pope: This means that 135 people are currently eligible to vote. The successor is probably one of their own (no one outside the university has been chosen to be the Pope since 1378), but technically a baptized Roman Catholic man is entitled to the role. (The ages of Cardinal College members also range from 45 to 99, but rarely in recent history are chosen as young or older ages.)
Eligible members of Cardinals University, as explained by the Congress of the Catholic Bishops (USCCB), will meet in the Vatican for a meeting in the coming weeks to “discuss the needs and challenges facing the Catholic Church.” Finally, they voted in a secret vote at St. Peter’s Cathedral in the Vatican, following the USCCB, “processing one at a time on Michelangelo’s fresco of the final judgment, saying prayers, dropping the two folded votes with a big chalice.”
If the candidate has not won two-thirds of the vote, the process will be repeated up to four times per day (total). If the voting agency fails to reach the threshold when black smoke rises from the Sistine Chapel chimney, the public will be notified.
If two-thirds of the College of Cardinal College vote to select a particular candidate, that candidate will be asked if he accepts the role. If so, the vote will be burned with chemicals to create white smoke. It produces white smoke. This swirls from the chimney to signal the imminent official announcement of the new Pope.
It is difficult to say who is preferred for the position, as it is considered poor to discuss such issues publicly among eligible members, and is considered to be even more poor in campaigns for work.
At that point, a popular proverb in Vatican circles is, “If you enter the Conclave as Pope, you leave as a cardinal.” This is the phrase implies that the sacred process is not a popular contest or campaign, but rather an election inspired by the sacredness of Christ’s pastors on Earth by the Church Prince.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
