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April 12, 2013 Fifteen Days in Rome: How the Pope Was Picked The inside story: From the Red Room where Bergoglio's name was first dropped to a faithful night on Rome's Piazza Navona By STACY MEICHTRY and ALESSANDRA GALLONI Though the public paid little notice to Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, his name had made the rounds among a small group of cardinals who had descended upon Rome from different parts of the globe to choose a new pope. On Feb. 27, a mild, dewy morning, Alitalia Flight 681 landed at Leonardo da Vinci airport in Rome after 13 hours in...

VATICAN CITY — The cardinals who enter the papal conclave on Tuesday will walk into the Sistine Chapel in a single file, but beneath the orderly display, they are split into competing lineups and power blocs that will determine which man among them emerges as pope.

It’s been more than 500 years since a non-cardinal was elected pope, but then, it’s been more than 500 years since a pope resigned, so, one moves cautiously to our question, who is eligible to be elected pope?Turns out, lots of people.Canon 332 § 1 of the 1983 Code simply states that one already a bishop (nb: not necessarily a cardinal) who accepts legitimate papal election becomes pope immediately. One who is not yet a bishop (and the Church has elected several non-bishops to the papacy) can accept election, but must be immediately consecrated bishop. By implication, that would seem...

RUSH: We have microphones in the Vatican. Let's JIP it. CARDINAL / TRANSLATOR: My dearest brothers and sisters. (cheers) My dearest brothers and sisters. (cheers) My dearest brothers and sisters. RUSH: He's speaking in a bunch of different languages, for those of you in Rio Linda. There's nothing wrong here. CARDINAL: I announce to you a great joy. (cheers) We have a pope! (cheers) The most eminent and most reverent Lord Joseph (chimes) of the holy Roman Catholic church, Cardinal Ratzinger! (roars) RUSH: So there you have it, ladies and gentlemen. From Germany, the new pope is Joseph Ratzinger. He...

The voting process has begun By John L. Allen, Jr. Rome Rather predictably, the first night of the 2005 conclave ended in puffs of black smoke. Though the cardinals are not obligated to hold a ballot on the first evening, historically it’s the pattern. The dean of the College of Cardinals, Joseph Ratzinger, was obligated to ask the cardinals if any of them had questions about the procedures to be followed under John Paul II’s document, Universi Dominici Gregis, but presumably by this point every question had been asked and answered a half-dozen times. Hence the cardinals opted to proceed...

Tonight the 115 cardinals who will elect the next pope will move into the Domus Sanctae Marthae, marking a sort of early start to their isolation during the conclave, and all indications are they can use the time. Several cardinals have told NCR in recent days that the situation is still quite fluid, with no clear consensus on candidates, and this in part because many cardinals simply have not had the opportunity to take part in the informal discussions that generally unfold in the week between the pope’s funeral and the first ballot inside the Sistine Chapel. The reality, according...

Among the boilerplate questions about conclaves I’ve been asked a thousand times by broadcast and print media this week, here’s one of the most common: What does it mean that the Holy Spirit guides the election of the pope? Isn’t this a political process? My equally boilerplate response goes like this: It’s a longstanding principle in Catholic theology that grace builds on nature, it doesn’t cancel it out. The belief that God is involved in some human undertaking does not make it any less human, and applied to conclaves, it means that the role of the Holy Spirit does not...

Throughout his steadily rising church career, Milan Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi has had a knack of being in the right place at the right time. The outcome of the secret conclave of cardinals to elect the next pope will tell if that pattern still holds for Tettamanzi, the favorite of many of those who think the papacy will return to the Italians after the 26-year tenure of a Polish pope broke their 455-year hold on the papacy. A 71-year-old theologian whom John Paul II often consulted, Tettamanzi is a moderate, but his staunch defense of the pope's teaching against abortion and...