Vatican deploying high-tech measures during papal vote to ensure secrecy
There is a high price to pay for anyone who breaks an oath to protect the "absolute and perpetual secrecy" of the upcoming papal vote.
Anyone — from priests, cooks, cleaners, drivers, guards and tradesmen — who leaks what they may see or hear at the conclave meeting faces automatic excommunication from the Catholic Church.
The conclave, taking place in the Sistine Chapel in Rome, is a meeting of 133 cardinals from around the world to determine who will take over leadership of the Catholic Church from Pope Francis.
Photo shows
Cardinals enter the Sistine Chapel.
Electing a new pope is a centuries-old process that involves the Catholic Church's most senior officials from around the world, and two different colours of smoke.
It is a process steeped in history, but its organisers have had to implement thoroughly modern solutions to prevent outside influence from infiltrating the process, or the media leaking deliberations before the new pope is declared.
All cardinals will have their electronic devices confiscated for the duration of the conclave, and they will only be returned once the process is complete.
Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni said the secrecy and sequestering of the cardinals was imperative to the process.
He said the matter went "beyond just technical questions," but was a "process united also with prayer, with meditation, with thought about who the person could be whom the Lord has identified as the pope of Rome".
The exact security measures are a closely kept secret known only to top Vatican officials, but some experts say these could include jamming devices, anti-drone defences and even shutting off nearby phone towers.
Here's what we know so far.
Jamming devices
There have been reports about the use of jamming devices during conclave meetings since 2013.
A new floor is being installed to minimise the number of stairs the cardinals will need to take in the chapel — with many of those invited over the age of 70 — and some officials have reportedly said the jamming devices have been placed underneath.
However, others dispute this, saying it was more likely the devices would be installed near the upper windows of the chapel.
The windows of the chapel are about 20 metres high.
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Getty: Noah Sauve
)
An Italian media outlet reported they were most likely to be "military-grade" jammers, which would disturb frequencies and make it near impossible to reach anyone within their transmission radius.
While effective against mobile phones, it would also scramble information received by a microphone, a radio or a computer.
Back in 2013, it was widely reported
No-one from the Vatican has ever confirmed the use of the measure.
Anti-drone defences
The chapel has gone old school to prevent drones spying on the meeting, placing opaque film over the glass.
However, there are other levers the Vatican can pull to ensure no drones infiltrate the meeting.
Measures taken during Pope Francis's funeral included enforcing a no-fly zone for the duration of the service.
St Peters Square will largely be unaffected by the techological security measures.
(
Reuters: Remo Casilli
)
Italian media outlets reported authorities had "anti-drone bazookas" ready to deploy that could neutralise any drones that breached the no-fly order.
City officials have not confirmed whether this technology will be available throughout the conclave, but one Vatican source said the city-state had its own systems to detect drones if need be.
Mobile phone towers shut off
The Office of the Governor of Vatican City reportedly sent out a communication on Monday warning mobile phone towers in Vatican City would be deactivated at 3pm, local time, on Wednesday.
The cardinals held one final mass in St Peter's Basilica before entering the conclave.
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ABC News: Che Chorley
)
The shutdown will not extend to St Peter's Square, where thousands typically gather to anticipate the election of the new pope, but there will be security with metal detectors in the crowd as an additional measure.
The shutdown will happen an hour and a half before the cardinals are sequestered and will continue until the end of the conclave.
The consequences
The oath of secrecy around the conclave was developed by St John Paul II in 1996 and was further tightened by Pope Benedict XVI in 2013.
The oath declares unless a person receives "special faculty" given by the newly elected pontiff or successors, they must observe and protect the secrecy around the conclave.
"I likewise promise and swear to refrain from using any audio or video equipment capable of recording anything which takes place during the period of the election within Vatican City, and in particular anything which in any way, directly or indirectly, is related to the process of the election itself," the oath says.
"I take this oath fully aware that an infraction thereof will incur the penalty of automatic excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See.
"So help me God and these Holy Gospels, which I touch with my hand."
Pope Benedict XVI made it explicit in his 2013 revisions that anyone who breached the oath would be excommunicated.
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Of particular relevance to Australia is a lesser-known department called Anima Mundi — Peoples, Arts and Cultures , an ethnographic museum, established in 1926 but which dates back to gifts sent from the Americas to Pope Innocent XII in 1691. Today, Anima Mundi includes roughly 80,000 artefacts (a number that includes individual items such as small pre-Columbian pottery fragments, for example). It also houses gifts received by pontiffs throughout past centuries as well non-European art and a collection of Indigenous Australian artefacts. This collection was assessed in 1986 by the then Director of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Professor Warwick Dix, who concluded that there were no human remains, or sacred objects of concern. Indigenous peoples, their rights and responsibilities are becoming increasingly important which is reflected in the growing engagement between communities with museums and collections. Reconnecting world collections with the communities they came from is now also seen as essential, to guide ongoing discussions of care, for exhibitions and future direction of curatorship or possible claims of repatriation for this collection and many others. Although not every object gifted to popes ends up in the official Vatican collections, official gifting has always been part of historical and contemporary diplomacy. An exchange of ideas and good will between state representatives, including with the Vatican, gifting has been associated with the projects of spreading religious as well as political ideas. A gift of state often aims to capture the essence of a nation. They may be chosen for showcasing local cultures and unique traditions or craftsmanship. Often, gifts accepted into the Vatican collections are valued for representing different or shared forms of spirituality, which may explain their designation in the ethnographic (non-European) museum of Anima Mundi . Gifts, attention and accountability Popes since Pope Pius XI have travelled extensively and shared and received gifts as part of their work. The most travelled pope was Pope John Paul II, who famously travelled to 129 countries during his 26-year papacy. During a visit to Australia in 1999, he received gifts including an oil painting on wood in the shape of a coolamon by Eastern Arrernte woman Kathleen Wallace from Ltyentye Apurte, Central Australia, called She Brings God's Word . Popes also commonly receive gifts from visiting delegations, as was the case during the recent inauguration of Pope Leo XIV. For the 2010 canonisation of Australia's first saint, Sister Mary McKillop, Pope Benedict XVI received gifts that included an acrylic painting on canvas entitled Pilgrimage created by Murri artist Yvonne O'Neill. The painting has concentric circles with connecting pathways that represent the journey lines or pilgrimage made by the Australians from St Joseph's Nudgee College in Brisbane and the Australian Catholic University who travelled to the Vatican for this event. About her painting, O'Neill said that 'the process of creating this painting helped to deepen my understanding of the Catholic faith by providing a tangible opportunity for reflection.' As O'Neill's statement suggests, the gifts have significance that extends far beyond the ritual of exchange that is staged for official photographers. Many of the gifted artworks that have been created in recent years by First Nations artists — including Yvonne O'Neill, Kathleen Wallace and Amanda Westley — convey power and authority over land. Their work demands something in return from the person who is in receipt of their art. Even where the artist has not been present for the exchange, the ties to Country that are represented becomes part of the contract of symbolic reciprocity that is a key feature of diplomacy. They ask for attention and accountability — by the recipient of the gift as well as the world looking at the visual record of the event. One of the stones of the winds that adorn the square of St Peter's Basilica, one of the most visited places in the world and in Rome for its immense artistic and architectural treasures. (Beto Creative / iStock Unreleased / Getty Images) What this all means, in a sense, is that the gifts and the official images become witness to an agreement between contemporary heads of state, especially in the absence of further public information. They also — and more importantly — stand in for the artist and the communities represented in paintings. Father Nicola Mapelli, who was director and curator of Anima Mundi for 15 years (2009–2023), refers to the items in this museum as 'cultural ambassadors', which would seem to recognise this role. Diplomatic gift exchange was not invented last month with the inauguration of the new pope. Contemporary gifts made by Indigenous artists carry the legacy of colonisation, which was also a process of cultural transfer. The ethics of gift exchange need to be discussed more openly. This might include more open public discussion about how and why certain gifts are selected to represent a nation. It might include more transparency about what Australia does with official gifts and information about how the public can access them. Most of all, discussion about diplomatic gift exchange needs to move beyond the superficial idea that it represents a symbolic form of reciprocity to articulate the loss of real agency, sovereignty and power over the land that has been painted in the three artworks by Yvonne O'Neill, Kathleen Wallace and Amanda Westley. Katherine Aigner is a Research Fellow in Repatriation and Natural History at the School of Culture, History and Language at the Australian National University. For over 10 years she worked at Anima Mundi — Peoples, Arts and Cultures on re-connecting their Indigenous collections with source communities. Her books include Australia: The Vatican Museums Indigenous Collection and Oceania and Island Southeast Asia. Kylie Message is Professor of Public Humanities and Director of the Humanities Research Centre at the Australian National University. She is the author of books including Museums and Social Activism: Engaged Protest, Collecting Activism, Archiving Occupy Wall Street and Museums and Racism.
