Category: Diocese of Scranton News

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – On the eve of the conclave that will decide the next pontiff, the ring and lead seal of the late Pope Francis were destroyed in the presence of members of the College of Cardinals in the Vatican’s New Synod Hall.

In a video released by the Vatican May 6, an unidentified woman scratched a cross on the papal ring, known as the fisherman’s ring, as well as on a lead seal bearing the papal insignia used to mark Pope Francis’ letters.

When asked why the destruction of the ring and the seal took place at the meeting and not immediately after the pope’s death, Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office, told journalists that the rules in the apostolic constitution, “Universi Dominici Gregis,” which governs the interregnum and election of a new pope, does not specify a precise time.

According to the apostolic constitution, the cardinals “arrange for the destruction of the fisherman’s ring and of the lead seal with which Apostolic Letters are dispatched” when meeting at the general congregations.

At their final congregation meeting, Bruni said, the cardinals discussed several issues, including the continuation of reforms initiated by Pope Francis, the fight against clergy sexual abuse and the care for creation.

The cardinals also emphasized the characteristics of the next pope, highlighting the importance “of communion” which was viewed “as an essential vocation for the new pontiff,” Bruni said.

“The profile of a shepherd pope, a teacher of humanity, capable of embodying the face of a Samaritan church, close to the needs and wounds of humanity, was outlined” at the last meeting, the Vatican reported in a communique. “In times marked by wars, violence and strong polarization, a strong need is felt for a spiritual guide who offers mercy, synodality and hope.”

The cardinals also approved an official declaration calling for peace in conflicts around the world, including in Ukraine and the Middle East. They lamented that “attacks, especially against civilian populations, have intensified.”

“We issue a heartfelt appeal to all parties involved to reach a permanent cease-fire as soon as possible and to negotiate, without preconditions or further delay, the peace long desired by the affected populations and the entire world,” the statement read.

At the press briefing, Bruni said the letter was the result of a proposal made at the general congregations and approved by the cardinals.

Bruni was also asked about reports in which Kenyan Cardinal Njue, the retired archbishop of Nairobi, claimed to have not been invited to participate in the conclave.

The Vatican press office had said May 2 that Cardinal Njue and Spanish Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera, the retired archbishop of Valencia, would not participate in the conclave due to health issues.

However, in an interview published May 6 by the Kenyan newspaper, The Nation, Cardinal Njue said he was not absent due to ill health but rather that he was never sent a formal invitation.

“Those who go there for the election are usually sent official invites and that has not happened on my part. I have not received an invitation,” the Kenyan cardinal said.

Shortly after, Archbishop Philip Anyolo of Nairobi issued a statement saying that Cardinal Njue had been “officially invited through the Apostolic Nunciature in Kenya.” The archbishop’s office had duly communicated to the Vatican that, “owing to his current health condition, (Cardinal Njue) will be unable to travel to Rome and take part in the conclave,” Archbishop Anyolo wrote.

The statement, however, did not clarify if Cardinal Njue was informed of the invitation. Bruni confirmed to journalists that the Vatican was told by the Nairobi archdiocese that Cardinal Njue would not participate due to health reasons and had no comment regarding the cardinal’s allegation.

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – As the Catholic Church and its cardinals prepare for May’s conclave, a new study by the Pew Research Center shows that U.S. Catholics want a more inclusive church – but divides remain on key issues among those with differing rates of Mass attendance.

The survey found that 60% of U.S. Catholics said the church “should be more inclusive, even if that means changing some of its teachings,” while 37% said the church “should stick to its traditional teachings, even if that means the church gets smaller.”

But among those who attend Mass weekly, 53% said the church should prioritize its traditional teachings, while 42% said it should prioritize inclusivity.

White non-Hispanic Catholics (61%) were more likely to prioritize inclusivity over keeping traditional teaching than Hispanic Catholics (56%). Hispanic Catholics showed stronger support for insisting the church stick to traditional teachings (40%) than white non-Hispanic Catholics (37%).

The survey did not include enough Black or Asian Catholics to break out separate responses.

According to the study, 84% of U.S. Catholics said the church should allow Catholics to use birth control – it did not distinguish between natural and artificial methods – while another 83% said the church should allow couples to use in vitro fertilization, or IVF. Those numbers slightly decreased to 72% (for birth control) and 71% (for IVF) among weekly Massgoers.

Father Thomas Gaunt, executive director of the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University, told OSV News the Pew survey aligned with his organization’s previous findings on the correlation between Mass attendance and acceptance of church teaching.

“Regular weekly church attenders tend to be far more consistent with the church’s stance and teachings than those who aren’t regular,” said Father Gaunt, whose organization, along with other Catholic experts, was consulted by Pew regarding the questionnaire.

At the same time, Father Gaunt noted some of the questions — specifically, those on IVF, married priests, and same-sex blessings — could have been further refined for greater accuracy.

In particular, he said, the question regarding IVF — which simply asked respondents if the church should permit the procedure to get pregnant — did not include language about the embryos created in the process, said Father Gaunt.

He explained that this “yes” to an abstract question is really an “incomplete” response. He noted that if participants had to also consider the fate of the discarded embryonic children, “You’ll see it’s a different reaction: ‘Hmm, I didn’t realize (that).'”

IVF is contrary to Catholic teaching, as it involves the eugenic destruction of millions of embryonic children, the unraveling of the integral bond between childbearing and marital love, the erosion of a child’s right to natural parents, and threats to health, safety and religious liberty. “Donum Vitae,” the 1987 instruction on respect for human life issued by the Vatican’s Congregation (now Dicastery) for the Doctrine of the Faith, first articulated the church’s stance on IVF, stressing human embryos’ dignity and their right to life.

The church holds that human sexuality, the differences and complementarity of male and female, is oriented toward the goods of marriage and the flourishing of family life. While married couples, amid their openness to new life, can space the birth of their children through natural family planning — a term encompassing an array of fertility awareness-based methods used to achieve or delay pregnancy — the church teaches that efforts to make procreation impossible are “intrinsically evil.”

Additionally, Pew found that 68% of U.S. Catholics overall said the church should allow women to become deacons, while another 59% said the church should ordain women as priests.

But these numbers decreased to 54% (for women deacons) and 41% (for women priests) among weekly Massgoers.

The late Pope Francis, who prioritized a greater inclusion of women in the life of the church, vigorously reiterated church teaching on the priesthood, which holds that priestly ordination is reserved to men alone due to the decision of Jesus Christ to only choose men for his apostles, the first priests and bishops of the church. However, the late pope also called for more theological reflection on the feminine dimension of the church and the role of women.

At the October 2024 Synod on Synodality, then-Vatican doctrinal chief Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, citing Pope Francis, said that the question of women in the diaconate — for which the pontiff had established a study group — was not “mature.” The cardinal explained that “other issues,” particularly the broad issue of women’s participation in the church, needed to be “deepened and resolved” first.

The Pew poll also found 63% of U.S. Catholics overall said the church should allow priests to get married, but just 49% of weekly Massgoers said they would support this.

Pew’s phrasing around married priests, however, did not allow Catholic respondents to give their views on the ordination of married men to the priesthood. In an explainer on its wording, Pew researchers said they only addressed “allowing parish priests to get married and continue in their duties” — something that is not allowed even in Eastern Catholic or Orthodox churches that have married priests.

In the Latin Church – the largest of the Catholic Church’s 24 self-governing churches and which is headed by the pope as the bishop of Rome – the ordination of celibate men only to priesthood has been the norm since the 12th century, with some exceptions to the discipline made in modern times for some former Protestant married clergy. The possibility of the Latin Church ordaining married men to the priesthood, in addition to celibate men, as a norm to align with the ancient discipline of the other 23 Eastern Catholic churches and their Orthodox counterparts, is a debatable matter.

However, all Catholic and Orthodox churches forbid priests from attempting to marry after ordination. The potentially fraught situation involves lopsided power dynamics between priests, who act in the person of Christ the head, and lay women, raising difficulties about the possibility for full and free consent needed to effect a valid sacramental marriage.

Six in 10 U.S. Catholics said priests should be permitted to give same-sex couples blessings.

But Father Gaunt said the question did not highlight that “priests could always give blessings to individuals” — something Pope Francis stressed after the Vatican’s 2023 declaration on the issue, “Fiducia Supplicans,” created a firestorm of controversy. The late pope said in a 2024 CBS News interview, “What I allowed was not to bless the union. That cannot be done because that is not the sacrament. I cannot. The Lord made it that way. But to bless each person, yes.”

Other findings from the Pew survey:

-About three-quarters of U.S. Catholics (76%) say the church should allow Catholics to receive holy Communion even if they are unmarried and living with a romantic partner, whereas the church’s Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches sexual activity must take place exclusively within marriage, otherwise it is a grave sin that “excludes one from sacramental communion.”

-Half said the church should recognize the unions of same-sex couples as marriages, whereas the Catholic Church teaches matrimony is the sacramental lifelong union of a man and a woman for the good of the spouses and open to the gift of children.

The survey also found a stark partisan divide, with self-identified Republicans and independents who lean Republican more likely to express support for the traditional teachings on those issues than Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents.

Among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, 53% said the church should prioritize maintaining its traditional teachings, while 45% said it should prioritize inclusivity. However, 75% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents said the church should prioritize inclusivity, while 21% said to prioritize maintaining traditional teaching.

About three out of 10 U.S. Catholics say they attend Mass at least once a week, according to Pew, while the remainder attend less frequently or not at all.

JERUSALEM (OSV News) – With the declining situation in Gaza always in his heart, in his final months, Pope Francis bequeathed his popemobile to Caritas Jerusalem and directed the agency to turn it into a mobile health station for the children in Gaza.

Preparation of the new health station is to be completed by mid-May, said Peter Brune, secretary general of Caritas Sweden, who together with Caritas Jerusalem’s Anton Asfar developed the idea in February. Upon Asfar’s suggestion, Brune visited Bethlehem in February to view the popemobile that had been stored in Bethlehem since it was used by Pope Francis on his pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 2014.

Pope Francis readily agreed to the idea after Swedish Cardinal Anders Arborelius of Stockholm, Sweden, approached him, Brune told OSV News in a phone interview.

“There is an urgency in the need to help children in Gaza. There has been a full blockage of aid since March 2,” Brune said. “This is not the way we should treat our children.”

When access to food, water and health care is cut off, children are often the first and hardest hit, with infection and other preventable conditions putting their lives at risk, Caritas Sweden and Caritas Jerusalem said in a press release. Brune said in the release that the mobile clinic will be a “concrete, life-saving intervention at a time when the health system in Gaza has almost completely collapsed.”

The vehicle will be staffed by a driver and medical doctors and is currently being fitted with equipment for diagnoses, examination and treatment, including rapid tests for infections, suture kits, syringes and needles, oxygen supply, vaccines and a refrigerator for medicines, and will be ready for use once the humanitarian corridor to Gaza reopens.

“This vehicle represents the love, care and closeness shown by His Holiness for the most vulnerable, which he expressed throughout the crisis,” Asfar said in the press release.

Since the outbreak of the war Pope Francis called the Catholic Holy Family Parish every night and spoke with the parish priests including parish pastor, Father Gabriel Romanelli, to express his support of the parish community sheltering at the compound. In his last “urbi et orbi” blessing on Easter, April 20, the pope called for a ceasefire and the release of the 59 hostages still held by Hamas, up to 24 of who are believed to still be alive, and aid for “a starving people who aspire to a future of peace.”

The main message of the new health mobile is to assure that the children of Gaza are not forgotten, said Brune. The unit will be called “Vehicle of Hope,” he said.

“It will be conveying a message of hope,” he told OSV. “The children will be sitting on the chair of the Holy Father and treated as the miracles that they are. If nothing more symbolically the pope was interested in bringing attention to the situation of the children of Gaza.”

In the meantime Israeli media reported that the Israeli cabinet approved plans which included “conquering of Gaza and holding the territories” as well as a plan for the distribution of humanitarian aid that Israel says would prevent Hamas from controlling its distribution.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – With less than 48 hours until the beginning of the conclave, the cardinals who will enter the Sistine Chapel to elect a new pope discussed war, the need for dialogue and the role of the pope in fostering it.

More than 170 cardinals, including 132 cardinals eligible to enter the conclave, met for two hours in the early evening May 5; it was the only time since Pope Francis died April 21 that they decided to add an evening session.

Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office, said about 20 cardinals spoke.

They discussed relations between ethnic groups within the church, migration as both a gift and a challenge for the church, the conflicts touching the cardinals’ home territories – particularly in Africa and parts of Asia – synodality and an ecclesiology of communion, Bruni told reporters.

“Reference was also made to the challenge represented by the spread of sects in various parts of the world,” the press office said in a statement.

Bruni said the cardinals also addressed the “obligation and responsibility of the cardinals to support the new pope.”

In terms of what qualities that pope should have, “a pope as a pastor was discussed,” Bruni said, “and with a perspective that goes beyond only the Catholic Church, particularly in a world in which all people are closer — therefore (working) toward dialogue and building relationships with different religious and cultural spheres.”

The May 5 evening session was scheduled to be penultimate general congregation meeting of cardinals. They were scheduled to meet once more the morning of May 6, and the conclave was scheduled to begin the following day.

Bruni said that about 100 people assisting with the conclave, clergy and laypeople, took their oath of secrecy about the conclave proceedings May 5.

Beginning May 6, the 133 cardinal electors expected to participate in the conclave will have access to their rooms in the Vatican guesthouses where they will stay during the conclave — the Domus Sanctae Marthae and the “old Casa Santa Marta” next door. They will begin spending the night there the evening of May 7.

The cardinals’ cell phones will be left at their temporary residences before the conclave, and they will have access to them again at the end of the conclave, Bruni said.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – On the final day of official mourning for the death of Pope Francis, the late pontiff was remembered as someone who was determined to live out the mission entrusted to him and serve others, even when his health deteriorated.

Presiding over a memorial Mass May 4, French Cardinal Dominique Mamberti, protodeacon of the College of Cardinals, said Pope Francis “remained faithful to his mission to the very exhaustion of his strength.”

“I was close to him on Easter Sunday, on the balcony of blessings of this basilica, as a witness to his suffering, but above all to his courage and determination to serve the people of God to the end,” Cardinal Mamberti said in his homily in St. Peter’s Basilica.

The main concelebrants at the memorial Mass, which marked the final day of the “novendiali” – the nine days of official mourning and Masses for the late pope – were Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, subdean of the College of Cardinals, and Cardinal Robert F. Prevost, the Chicago-born prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops under Pope Francis.

Unless he is elected pope, as the senior cardinal deacon, Cardinal Mamberti is also tasked with declaring the election of the new pope to the public by proclaiming the words, “Habemus papam” (“We have a pope”).

In his homily, the French cardinal reflected on the Gospel reading which recalled Jesus’ threefold question to Peter, asking the disciple if he loved him and then entrusting him to “feed” and “tend my sheep.”

The mission entrusted to Peter, Cardinal Mamberti said, “is love itself which becomes service to the church and to all humanity.”

In his teachings, travels, gestures and way of life, Pope Francis was faithful to that mission by warning “the powerful that we must obey God rather than men” and by proclaiming “to all humanity the joy of the Gospel, the merciful Father and Christ the savior,” he said.

The late pope also emphasized the importance of adoration and worship before God “who comes in littleness, who dwells in our homes, who dies for love,” the cardinal said, citing Pope Francis’ words.

“This capacity for adoration was not hard to recognize in Pope Francis,” Cardinal Mamberti said. “His tireless pastoral life and countless encounters were grounded in long periods of prayer shaped by Ignatian discipline. He often reminded us that contemplation is ‘a dynamic of love’ that ‘lifts us to God not to detach us from the earth, but to help us inhabit it more deeply.'”

Cardinal Mamberti concluded his homily by remembering the pope’s devotion to Mary, evidenced by his “126 visits to the ‘Salus Populi Romani,'” the Marian icon housed at Rome’s Basilica of St. Mary Major.

“And now that he rests near that beloved image, we entrust him with gratitude and confidence to the intercession of the mother of the Lord and our mother,” Cardinal Mamberti said.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The Colosseum, the Trevi Fountain and the Sistine Chapel usually top the “must see” list of visitors to Rome and the Vatican.

But as 133 of the world’s cardinals prepared to enter the conclave May 7 to elect the new pope, the Sistine Chapel was closed to visitors April 28.

In preparation for the conclave, workers placed a protective covering over the marble mosaic floors and started carrying in pipes, couplers and sheets of subflooring.

The chapel is the highlight of most tours of the Vatican Museums and close to 7 million people visit each year, especially to see the ceiling Michelangelo painted between 1508 and 1512 and the massive wall fresco of the Last Judgment he painted between 1535 and 1541.

As documented by the Vatican Media video team beginning April 28, the din of tourists, constantly reminded that it is a chapel and they must whisper, was replaced with the sounds of hammering and sawing, the ping of metal couplings hitting metal couplings and the thud of the subfloor being laid.

The new floors and a few ramps, set on top of mini-scaffolding, will eliminate most steps and make the chapel more accessible for the cardinals, whose average age is over 70. Rows of tables and chairs will be added along the north and south walls so that the cardinals face each other. The tables closest to the walls will be raised slightly so that the cardinals in the back have a clear view.

While photographers, and tourists with a keen eye, watched from St. Peter’s Square as Vatican firefighters installed a chimney on the chapel roof May 2, Vatican Media photographers documented what was happening inside.

Two stoves, connected by a copper pipe, were installed: one to burn ballots and the other to burn chemicals to create either dark black or bright white smoke to let the public know if a pope was elected or not.

Before the conclave that elected Pope Benedict XVI in 2005, the ballots were burned with wet or dry straw, which produced the right color, but never really created enough smoke to offer a clear signal.

Maintaining secrecy is part of the cardinals’ oath, so technicians will sweep the chapel for electronic surveillance or recording devices before the conclave.

Before the 2013 conclave that elected Pope Francis, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, then-Vatican spokesman, told reporters that jamming devices are used to disable cellphone signals, but that they are not installed under the false flooring as often is reported.

In 2003, two years before his death, St. John Paul II reflected on his experiences in the Sistine Chapel in a series of poems “Roman Triptych.”

He wrote about the two conclaves of 1978 – the first that elected Pope John Paul I and then the conclave that elected him.

“It is here, at the feet of this marvelous Sistine profusion of color that the Cardinals gather – a community responsible for the legacy of the keys of the Kingdom,” St. John Paul wrote. “They come right here. And once more Michelangelo wraps them in his vision.”

That vision, he wrote, begins with the “creating hand” of God giving life to Adam and ends with the Last Judgment. But it also includes Jesus telling St. Peter in Matthew 16:19: “I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

“It is necessary that during the Conclave, Michelangelo teach them,” the late pope wrote. “Do not forget: ‘Omnia nuda et aperta sunt ante oculos Eius’ (‘All things are laid bare and open before his eyes’). You who see all — point to him! He will point him out.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – As the Catholic Church elects a new pope, a cardinal reminded his fellow electors that true Christian leadership begins not in control, but in surrender to mystery.

“We so often feel like masters of God, perfect knowers of the truth, while we are only pilgrims to whom the Word has been given,” said Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, former prefect of Dicastery for Eastern Churches, during a memorial Mass for Pope Francis May 2.

In his homily, the Italian cardinal warned against reducing God to human categories, pointing to the idea deeply rooted in Eastern Christianity that God is ultimately beyond comprehension. “Contemplation of the incomprehensible,” he said, reminds believers that even the greatest theologians – like St. Thomas Aquinas in the West – could speak only of what God is not, rather than define what God is.

Cardinal Gugerotti celebrated Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica with cardinals and representatives from the Eastern Churches on the seventh day of the “novendiali” — nine days of mourning for Pope Francis marked by Masses.

Calling on the church to remain attentive to the cries of creation and of suffering humanity, Cardinal Gugerotti lamented that “creation and the human person seem to have so little value today.”

Some parts of the church however, such as in Africa, are attentive to the beauty of creation around them, “because new life is for their peoples an inestimable value.”

He described creation as a “companion on the journey of humanity” and recalled how Pope Francis often insisted that caring for the earth and for the poor are inseparable tasks. Creation “asks for solidarity from the human race,” the cardinal said, “so that it may be respected and healed.”

Reflecting on the legacy of Pope Francis, he said the late pope “taught us to gather the cry of violated life, to assume it and present it to the Father, but also to work to concretely alleviate the pain that this cry evokes.”

At times, he said, a wounded humanity struggles even to voice its need for God.

“This desperate humanity, in its cry, finds it difficult to express prayer and invocation to the God of life,” the cardinal said. In such moments, the Holy Spirit gives voice to what the human heart cannot articulate, transforming “our rocky silences and unexpressed tears into an invocation to our God with inexpressible groanings.”

Cardinal Gugerotti said this interior prayer – silent but powerful – must guide the church through its mourning and discernment. “In this Eucharist we intend to join, as we can and know how, the inexpressible groaning of the Spirit that cries out to God what is pleasing to him,” he said.

The cardinal also praised the witness of Eastern Catholic communities present at the Mass, many of whom have faced persecution, war or exile. Though diminished in number, he said, “they remain firmly attached to a sense of catholicity that does not exclude but indeed implies the recognition of their specificity.”

Their liturgical and spiritual traditions, he noted, “enrich the church with the variety of their experiences, their cultures, but above all their very rich spirituality.”

As the cardinals prepare to enter the conclave May 7, Cardinal Gugerotti closed his homily by invoking the Holy Spirit through a 10th-century Eastern prayer by St. Symeon the New Theologian:

“Come, true light; come, eternal life; come, hidden mystery … so that, seeing you forever I, who am dead, may live.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – All but four of the 135 cardinals who are eligible to enter the conclave May 7 to vote for a new pope had arrived in Rome by May 2, according to the Vatican press office.

Spanish Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera, 79, retired archbishop of Valencia, and Kenyan Cardinal John Njue, retired archbishop of Nairobi, who also is 79, have announced they are too ill to take part in the conclave and would not be traveling to Rome.

Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office, told reporters May 2 that he would not name the two others who are missing. The Vatican will provide a list May 7 of all the cardinals who enter the conclave.

Bruni vigorously denied an Italian news report that Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the former Vatican secretary of state widely viewed by the press as a leading candidate to become pope, had a medical emergency during the general congregation meeting April 30.

“No, that is not true. No,” Bruni said.

As the cardinals were meeting May 2, Vatican firefighters were installing the chimney on the roof of the Sistine Chapel. The chimney connects to the stove, installed in a corner of the chapel, where the cardinals’ ballots will be burned. With a chemical additive, black smoke out of the chimney signals that no one was elected while white smoke means the church has a new pope.

Between the death of Pope Francis April 21 and the beginning of the conclave, the cardinals – both those under the age of 80 and eligible to enter the conclave as well as those who are over 80 and are not eligible – meet most days in a general congregation.

The meetings allow the cardinals to study the current state of the church and the Vatican, to discuss challenges the world poses to believers and to exchange views on the qualities the next pope should have.

Bruni said more than 180 cardinals – more than 120 of whom are electors – were present for the May 2 general congregation.

Twenty-five cardinals addressed the group, bringing up a wide variety of topics, Bruni said.

“They spoke of evangelization as the heart of the pontificate of Francis, the church as a communion” and its connection to evangelization, synodality and “how to communicate the Gospel, particularly to the youth,” he said. They also spoke of the witness and suffering of many of the Eastern Catholic churches.

Another cardinal, he said, spoke of how the unity of the church is an essential witness and quoted the biblical passage that says Christians will be recognized by how they love one another.

The “risk and counter-witness” of clerical sexual abuse and financial scandals was also discussed, Bruni said.

“There was a reflection also on the hermeneutics of continuity between the pontificates of St. John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Pope Francis,” he said, as well as on the Eucharist.

VATICAN CITY (OSV News) – In the heart of Vatican City, the usually quiet Casa Santa Marta is abuzz with workers, engineers, and Vatican officials transforming the guesthouse that was the residence of Pope Francis into a secure, secluded place of lodging that would put Fort Knox to shame.

With the 2025 conclave to elect Pope Francis’ successor set to begin on May 7, the Vatican guest house is now preparing to house 128 of the 133 cardinal electors that are expected to be present during the conclave, according to a source who asked not to be named.

This change from a general hotel to a secure dormitory for cardinals participating in the conclave became evident April 29, when all permanent residents, including some cardinals who have had a room there for years, were required to vacate their rooms. According to a Vatican official with firsthand knowledge of the preparations, many will return to the same rooms once the conclave begins, but only after each room is inspected, secured and sealed.

The following day, staff from the Vatican Governorate began a weeklong overhaul of the facility. Every detail – from the locks on the doors to the alignment of the shutters – is under review. The kitchen, temporarily closed, is undergoing deep cleaning to meet conclave protocols. Even the underground garage has been repurposed as a logistics hub, where clean linens, fresh food, and other essentials will be distributed under the careful supervision of Vatican security.

Though often associated with comfort, the guest house is not a hotel in the traditional sense.

“There’s no minibar or room service,” the official noted. “Some residents had small fridges, but during the conclave, the focus is simplicity and security, not convenience.” Room service? Out of the question, unless you are a convalescing guest.

The kitchen will be staffed by the same small team that normally serves Santa Marta: two young Italian cooks and a female chef from Africa. The menus — while not luxurious — are expected to be high-quality and tailored to the health needs of the cardinals, including those who are diabetic, gluten-intolerant, or require special diets.

While Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office, said during the May 2 press briefing in the Vatican that he “doesn’t have precise indications” on how many cardinals will stay outside of Santa Marta, the source told OSV News that, as the hotel has 129 rooms, there will be space for 128 electors. The room previously used by Pope Francis is sealed until the new pope opens it.

The remaining cardinals, the source said, will be housed in the adjoining “Old Santa Marta” building, which is physically connected to the newer structure. Alongside the cardinal electors, some 70 to 80 support personnel — nurses, doctors, liturgical assistants, servers and cooks — will remain on hand, all bound by an oath of secrecy and isolated from the rest of the world.

That oath is no symbolic gesture. The same Vatican official confirmed that every person inside the conclave environment – whether a cardinal, layperson, priest, or bishop – will be subject to excommunication if they violate the conclave’s strict secrecy rules. Phones, tablets, laptops, radios and televisions will be confiscated, placed into sealed bags labeled with each cardinal’s name, and held in reserve until the conclave concludes.

“Even the windows will be sealed, including the shutters, so no one can so much as glance outside,” the source said.

Every cardinal’s room will be sealed after inspection to ensure it contains no means of communication with the outside world. These seals will only be broken once the cardinal-elector arrives and takes possession of the room, always in the presence of the Swiss Guard or Vatican gendarmes.

These security measures are deeply rooted in church tradition. The word “conclave” itself comes from the Latin “cum clave” — literally “with a key” — evoking the image of the cardinals locked in seclusion until they elect a new pope. The practice of locking electors dates back to the conclave of 1271, which followed nearly three years of deadlock and political interference. In response, Pope Gregory X formalized the conclave process in 1274 with the constitution

“Ubi periculum,” requiring strict isolation and continuous voting.

Secrecy became even more vital in the modern era. During the 1903 conclave, Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria exercised a long-standing but controversial right to veto a candidate — Italian Cardinal Mariano Rampolla — through a representative inside the Sistine Chapel. Though the veto failed to prevent Rampolla from receiving significant support, it likely influenced the cardinals’ final decision. As a result, the newly elected Pope Pius X swiftly abolished the veto and any secular interference in papal elections.

That commitment to autonomy was reaffirmed by St. John Paul II in 1996 with his apostolic constitution “Universi Dominici Gregis,” which governs modern conclaves. The document outlines everything from the required two-thirds majority vote to the penalties for breaking the oath of secrecy. It was later amended by Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis to reflect changes in technology and church governance.

This year’s conclave presents both logistical and spiritual challenges. For the first time, the number of cardinal electors exceeds the 120-cap set by Pope Paul VI in 1970, prompting adjustments to accommodate all participants without compromising the conclave’s integrity.

Still, the essence remains unchanged. As the cardinals continue meeting in Rome — with only a handful of the 133 electors missing — the Vatican is quietly locking the doors, sealing the windows, and preparing the rooms of what is now one of the most famous hotels in the world — and out of which will emerge the next pope.