Latest news with #papalvote
CBC
08-05-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Canadian in the conclave + India-Pakistan tensions
The National's Adrienne Arsenault speaks with Cardinal Michael Czerny — one of four Canadians voting for the next pope — just before he entered the Sistine Chapel. Plus, what pushed India and Pakistan to the brink of a wider conflict.
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Locals gather for red wine spritz and conclave watch in a cardinal's hometown
SCHIAVON, Italy (AP) — Conclave watching turned out to be a perfect aperitivo activity. Caffè Centrale, on the main drag of the Veneto hometown of Cardinal Pietro Parolin, a papal favorite, filled up with locals and journalists awaiting the first sign of smoke on Wednesday. A large TV screen displayed images from St. Peter's Square and the chimney atop the Sistine Chapel, where 133 cardinals were casting the first votes for pope, as locals in the Veneto town of Schiavon, near Vicenza, quaffed glasses of wine. 'We're waiting, and we're rooting for him,'' said Giacomo Bonora, raising a glass of the local favorite, a red wine spritz, and using the local nickname for Parolin, 'Don Piero." Bonora said that when Parolin returns to the town of 2,600, he asks to be called 'Don Piero," the way a parish priest would be addressed, using the Veneto dialect for Pietro, rather than 'eminence,'' a cardinal's honorific. Parolin, 70, is a veteran diplomat who was Francis' secretary of state, essentially the Holy See's prime minister and No. 2 to the pope. Outside, a city worker stopped to show the parish sacristan a photo of Parolin when the town celebrated his elevation to secretary of state 12 years ago. Everyone is hopeful, but officials have been instructed not to speak to the media until a new pope is elected. Angelo Cisalto, the sacristan at the town's St. Margherita parish church, was heading home to keep an eye on the smoke coming out of the chimney. If it is white, it is his job to go and ring the church bells. Cisalto, 84, remembers Parolin as a child, 14 years his junior, and always devout. 'He used to dress up as an altar boy, and at home, in his garage, he had a little altar,'' where he would play saying Mass, Cisalto recalled. 'He is a very good, very humble person." Back at Caffè Centrale, clients ordered plates of cold cuts as the closed meeting of cardinals dragged on long past the expected hour. TV reporters whose air times had passed headed out for the night. Finally, black smoke emerged. 'Tomorrow, we'll do it again,' Bonora said. Locals recalled that Parolin came regularly to Schiavon before his mother died last summer. His father died when he was 10, and he entered the seminary in nearby Vicenza at 14. For a period, he was a parish priest in the foothills town of Schio before joining the Vatican's diplomatic corps. While closely associated with Francis' pontificate, Parolin is much more demure in personality and diplomatic in his approach to leading than the Argentine Jesuit he served — and he knows where the Catholic Church might need a course correction. Many see him as embodying Francis' pastoral message while being more open to conservative points of view. While his career has been spent in Italy, his job as a Vatican diplomat has seen him travel the world, giving him a global perspective. If he were elected, he would return an Italian to the papacy after three successive outsiders: St. John Paul II (Poland), Pope Benedict XVI (Germany) and Francis (Argentina).
Associated Press
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Associated Press
Locals gather for red wine spritz and conclave watch in a cardinal's hometown
SCHIAVON, Italy (AP) — Conclave watching turned out to be a perfect aperitivo activity. Caffè Centrale, on the main drag of the Veneto hometown of Cardinal Pietro Parolin , a papal favorite, filled up with locals and journalists awaiting the first sign of smoke on Wednesday. A large TV screen displayed images from St. Peter's Square and the chimney atop the Sistine Chapel, where 133 cardinals were casting the first votes for pope, as locals in the Veneto town of Schiavon, near Vicenza, quaffed glasses of wine. 'We're waiting, and we're rooting for him,'' said Giacomo Bonora, raising a glass of the local favorite, a red wine spritz, and using the local nickname for Parolin, 'Don Piero.' Bonora said that when Parolin returns to the town of 2,600, he asks to be called 'Don Piero,' the way a parish priest would be addressed, using the Veneto dialect for Pietro, rather than 'eminence,'' a cardinal's honorific. Parolin, 70, is a veteran diplomat who was Francis' secretary of state, essentially the Holy See's prime minister and No. 2 to the pope. Outside, a city worker stopped to show the parish sacristan a photo of Parolin when the town celebrated his elevation to secretary of state 12 years ago. Everyone is hopeful, but officials have been instructed not to speak to the media until a new pope is elected. Angelo Cisalto, the sacristan at the town's St. Margherita parish church, was heading home to keep an eye on the smoke coming out of the chimney. If it is white, it is his job to go and ring the church bells. Cisalto, 84, remembers Parolin as a child, 14 years his junior, and always devout. 'He used to dress up as an altar boy, and at home, in his garage, he had a little altar,'' where he would play saying Mass, Cisalto recalled. 'He is a very good, very humble person.' Back at Caffè Centrale, clients ordered plates of cold cuts as the closed meeting of cardinals dragged on long past the expected hour. TV reporters whose air times had passed headed out for the night. Finally, black smoke emerged . 'Tomorrow, we'll do it again,' Bonora said. Locals recalled that Parolin came regularly to Schiavon before his mother died last summer. His father died when he was 10, and he entered the seminary in nearby Vicenza at 14. For a period, he was a parish priest in the foothills town of Schio before joining the Vatican's diplomatic corps. While closely associated with Francis' pontificate, Parolin is much more demure in personality and diplomatic in his approach to leading than the Argentine Jesuit he served — and he knows where the Catholic Church might need a course correction. Many see him as embodying Francis' pastoral message while being more open to conservative points of view. While his career has been spent in Italy, his job as a Vatican diplomat has seen him travel the world, giving him a global perspective. If he were elected, he would return an Italian to the papacy after three successive outsiders: St. John Paul II (Poland), Pope Benedict XVI (Germany) and Francis (Argentina).
ABC News
07-05-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
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. ( 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. ( 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.
BBC News
06-05-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Pope conclave: Kenya's cardinal to miss papal vote because of ill health
Kenya's cardinal to miss papal vote because of ill health Just now Share Save Basillioh Rukanga BBC News, Nairobi Share Save Reuters Cardinal John Njue retired as Archbishop of Nairobi in 2021 The Catholic Church in Kenya has responded to concerns that the country's only cardinal will not be participating in the election of the next pope because he had not been asked to attend. Following Pope Francis' death last month, senior Catholic leaders, known as cardinals, who are younger than 80, are eligible to elect his successor. They are due to begin meeting in the Vatican on Wednesday, but Kenyan Cardinal John Njue, 79, was quoted in a Kenyan newspaper saying that he had not been invited and he did not know why. Catholic officials in Kenya later said that he had been invited but was not able to go because of ill health. "Although [the cardinal] is eligible to participate and was officially invited... owing to his current health condition [he] will be unable to travel to Rome," a statement signed by Archbishop Philip Anyolo said. "Let us also continue to pray for the good health of His Eminence John Cardinal Njue." The archbishop did not explain the health issues further. Tuesday's statement by the Nairobi archdiocese noted that it was reacting to concerns over Cardinal Njue's participation and "various enquiries" about whether he would be at the cardinals' meeting, known as a conclave. The Daily Nation newspaper had quoted him as saying that he had not been invited adding that "it is not because of health... I don't know really... it's difficult to comment about it". Cardinal Njue was the Archbishop of Nairobi from 2007 until his retirement in 2021. He was appointed a cardinal in 2007 by Pope Benedict XVI becoming the second cardinal to have come from the country. He and Spain's Cardinal Antonio Cañizares, 79, are the only cardinals who will not be participating in the papal vote out the 135 who are eligible. A two-thirds majority, or at least 89 of them, are required to elect the new pontiff and successor of Pope Francis to lead the world's 1.4 billion Catholics. You may also be interested in: Getty Images/BBC
