Live Updates: Robert Francis Prevost Is 1st American Pope

New York Times

08-05-2025

The Sistine Chapel in 1939, when it was set up for the conclave that elected Pope Pius XII.
As the cardinals vote for the next leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics, they will be facing Michelangelo's 'Last Judgment' in the Sistine Chapel, a powerful work that may appear to be watching over the solemn, weighy occasion. Of the Sistine Chapel, Pope John Paul II once wrote, 'everything is conducive to an awareness of the presence of God, in whose sight each person will one day be judged.'
But the chapel has not always been the official place for the papal conclave.
This year's conclave is only the 14th to be held inside the chapel since rules for electing a pontiff were first drafted some 800 years ago, said Ralf van Bühren, who teaches art history at the Pontifical University of Santa Croce in Rome.
The conclave was first held in the chapel in 1492. Then for more than 300 years, conclaves were held in different spaces in the Apostolic Palace, the papal residence. It was not until 1878 that the church again started holding the papal elections in the Sistine Chapel. And it did not become the official site for the conclave until 1996, when Pope John Paul II drafted new rules for papal elections, noted Barbara Jatta, the director of the Vatican Museums.
In the early centuries of the church, the popes were elected by acclamation — a kind of group voice vote — and the clergy as well as the population of Rome could participate. Gradually, voting rights were restricted to the top ranks of the clergy, though external interference from monarchs and aristocrats was common.
The longest conclave in history lasted 33 months, between Nov. 29, 1268, and Sept. 1, 1271. It prompted Gregory X, the pontiff who emerged from that election, to draw up rules that were first used in 1276. These were adjusted over the years, overhauled by John Paul II, and tweaked by Benedict XVI.
Conclave comes from 'cum clave,' Latin for with a key, and the cardinals remained sequestered until a pope was chosen. Small, hastily built cubicles were erected in the Sistine Chapel and surrounding halls and rooms. Each cardinal was allowed an aide or two, though since space was scarce, the aides were often forced to sleep on makeshift lofts above the cubicles.
There were periods in history when cardinals were literally walled in, along with a crew of assistants. The Vatican archives and museums have documents referring to payments for some of the additional conclave crews: masters of ceremonies, confessors, sacristans, doctors, nurses and pharmacists.
'It was an entire world,' said Michela Gianfranceschi, a Vatican Museums official.
An official known as a conclave marshal was given the keys to where the cardinals were staying and acted as their intermediary to the outside world while they remained sequestered.
The diaries of past participants suggest that papal conclaves were hardly picnics. Over the centuries there have been fires inside the hall. Fights broke out among cardinals. Riots erupted in the streets outside.
Mary Hollingsworth, in her book about the 1559 conclave, writes that during the four months that led to the election of Pope Pius IV, 'the living conditions in the Vatican had deteriorated dramatically: one cardinal died, many were ill (some of them dying subsequently), and the stench in the Sistine Chapel, where 21 of them had their cells, was so bad that the area had to be fumigated.'
The election of Urban VIII took place during three weeks in the summer of 1606, and contemporary documents say that the 55 cardinals involved suffered in the stifling Roman heat. By the time they were released, 12 cardinals had a fever, two had to leave because of illness and others were close to death. Even Urban had to postpone his election ceremony because he was ill.
Some popes sought to find alternative spaces to house the cardinals, including above the colonnade in St. Peter's Square, a plan that was never carried out, or camping out in the Vatican gardens, which was also nixed, Ms. Gianfranceschi said.
In the early 19th century, four conclaves were held at the Quirinale, the pontifical palace across town that today is the residence of the Italian president. The move to the Quirinale was partly for practical considerations: It was more spacious, and the number of cardinals had grown, Ms. Gianfranceschi said. But the popes lost the palace when Italy became a kingdom, and in 1878 the papal elections were shifted to the Sistine Chapel.
Under John Paul's rules, a Vatican guesthouse with modest lodgings was built for the voting cardinals.