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# TIME Explains: How New Pope is Elected

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<!-- video src="https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/LmMxrpKj.m3u8" -->
## Video: TIME Explains: How New Pope is Elected

[Watch (HLS stream): TIME Explains: How New Pope is Elected](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/LmMxrpKj.m3u8) (2:02)

![TIME Explains: How New Pope is Elected](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/LmMxrpKj/poster.jpg?width=720)

_Published 2013-02-12. Soon after Pope Benedict XVI retires, the College of Cardinals will gather to elect a new pope through a unique process that has lasted for centuries._


---

Jul 27, 2023 3:30 PM UTC

---

## More From This Series

[All Videos](https://time.com/video/)

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### Cardinals Gather at Vatican to Finalize Plans for Pope Francis' Funeral and Conclave

[Holy Mass at Funeral of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI](/video/JSo5077Q/)

### Holy Mass at Funeral of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI

[Pope Francis Opens a Gathering of Roman Catholic Bishops](/video/CE8uzAd0/)

### Pope Francis Opens a Gathering of Roman Catholic Bishops

---


## Transcript

[ SOUND ] [ MUSIC ] Pope Benedict XVI, announced on Monday, he would step down from his position, as the head of the Roman Catholic Church. Becoming the first pontiff to do so in nearly 600 years. With his retirement, the church leadership begins the necessary steps to find a new Pope. A unique and unusual process whose origins date back centuries. Starting soon after the Pope officially steps down at the end of the month, cardinals from around the world will head to Rome to take part in a procedure known as a conclave. Their group is known as the College of Cardinals and they will stay in the Casa de Santa Marta.

A 20 million dollar hotel style resident inside the Vatican, and they won't leave the Vatican walls until the new pope has been selected. All the electors must be under the age of 80. That leaves 118 Cardinals. Eligible to take part out of 210. The conclave will take place behind closed doors in the Vatican's famous Sistine chapel. The cardinals will be completely isolated from the outside world. The first ballot maybe help on the first afternoon of the conclave after morning mass. Then two more ballots in the morning, and two in the afternoon until the pope is elected. Technically, any baptized male catholic is eligible, but since the year 1378, all new popes have come from within the college of cardinals.

After each voting round, tradition dictates that the ballots are bound together and burned in a special oven erected temporarily inside the chapel. The smoke rising from the Sistine Chapel's chimney, signals to the expectant faithful in St. Peter's Square The outcome of the vote. If the smoke is black it means that no candidate has achieved the 2 3rds majority needed to win. And another round of balloting will take place. If the smoke is white, a new pope has been elected. A senior cardinal then takes to the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica to announce in Latin. I announce to you news of great joy.

We have a pope. [ MUSIC ]

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