With the unfortunate passing of Pope Francis, the Church must now fill his place with a new successor of St. Peter. Who chooses the new Pope and how does this happen?

The College of Cardinals will be the ones to choose. All the cardinals under 80 years old gather together in Rome. They are called cardinal electors and one of them will be chosen by the other to become the next Vicar of Christ.

The college holds a series of meetings within the Vatican. These are called general congregations. They discuss the needs of the Church as a whole and then prepare for the upcoming election. This election is called a conclave. This conclave will start on May 7.

The conclave is held within the Sistine Chapel. Each Cardinal takes an oath of absolute secrecy before entering and the doors of the Chapel are sealed. In this conclave, there are four rounds of ballots (votes) taken anonymously each day.

These votes are then counted by three cardinals which have been designated to do so. This continues until one elector receives two-thirds of the vote. When the ballots do not result in two-thirds, they are burned with chemicals to produce black smoke. This smoke is visible to all the people of the Church during the conclave.

When the ballots do result in two-thirds the smoke will become white. The elector will be asked if he accepts his election, and if he does, he will change into the papal vestments. The senior cardinal deacon (currently Cardinal Dominique Mamberti) will announce from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, “Habemus Papam” (We have a pope). The new pope of the Catholic Church will then process out onto the balcony and bless the people for the first time as the newest Vicar of Christ.