Following the Death of Pope Francis, Here’s How the Next Pope Will Be Chosen

Vat­i­can City, April 22, 2025 — With the pass­ing of Pope Fran­cis, the Catholic Church now enters a peri­od of mourn­ing — and tran­si­tion. As the world grieves the loss of the first Jesuit and Latin Amer­i­can pope, atten­tion turns to the Vat­i­can, where prepa­ra­tions are already under­way for the elec­tion of the next leader of the world’s 1.3 bil­lion Catholics.

The Period of Sede Vacante Begins

The death of a pope trig­gers a peri­od known as “sede vacante” — Latin for “the seat being vacant.” Dur­ing this time, the usu­al func­tions of the papa­cy are sus­pend­ed, and the gov­er­nance of the Church is tem­porar­i­ly hand­ed over to the Col­lege of Car­di­nals, the body of senior church offi­cials respon­si­ble for elect­ing a new pope.

Enter the Conclave: A Tradition of Secrecy and Spirituality

The core of the selec­tion process is the con­clave, a secret meet­ing of all car­di­nals under the age of 80, who will gath­er in the Sis­tine Chapel to cast their votes. The word “con­clave” itself means “with a key,” ref­er­enc­ing the tra­di­tion­al seclu­sion of the car­di­nals from the out­side world dur­ing the elec­tion.

All car­di­nals eli­gi­ble to vote — cur­rent­ly 123 — will trav­el to Rome in the com­ing days. Pri­or to the con­clave, they’ll meet in dai­ly Gen­er­al Con­gre­ga­tions, where they reflect on the needs of the Church, share per­spec­tives, and infor­mal­ly dis­cuss poten­tial can­di­dates.

How Voting Works

The vot­ing process is deeply root­ed in tra­di­tion and rit­u­al. Dur­ing the con­clave, car­di­nals vote by secret bal­lot up to four times per day — two in the morn­ing, two in the after­noon. A suc­cess­ful elec­tion requires a two-thirds major­i­ty.

After each vote, the bal­lots are burned in a spe­cial stove. Chem­i­cals are added to the paper to pro­duce smoke sig­nals seen by the pub­lic from the Sis­tine Chapel chim­ney:

• Black smoke means no deci­sion has been reached.
• White smoke sig­nals that a new pope has been elect­ed.

Once a car­di­nal secures the nec­es­sary votes, he is asked: “Do you accept your canon­i­cal elec­tion as Supreme Pon­tiff?” Upon accep­tance, he choos­es a papal name and is quick­ly vest­ed in papal white gar­ments.

The Moment of Habemus Papam

Short­ly after the elec­tion, the senior car­di­nal dea­con steps out onto the cen­tral bal­cony of St. Peter’s Basil­i­ca and declares: “Habe­mus Papam!” — “We have a pope!”

The new pon­tiff then appears before the crowd in St. Peter’s Square to offer his first bless­ing, Urbi et Orbi (“to the city and to the world”).

Who Will Lead the Church Next?

Spec­u­la­tion about the iden­ti­ty of the next pope has already begun. Some ana­lysts sug­gest a push toward con­ti­nu­ity with Pope Francis’s lega­cy of humil­i­ty, reform, and glob­al out­reach, while oth­ers believe the car­di­nals may seek a leader with a dif­fer­ent style or region­al back­ground.

Regard­less of who is cho­sen, the process will be steeped in cen­turies-old tra­di­tion — but also marked by the mod­ern real­i­ties fac­ing today’s Catholic Church.