ROME — Filipino clergy based here sent off on Tuesday, May 6, the three Filipino cardinals eligible to enter the Vatican conclave that will elect the next pope.
Cardinals Luis Antonio Tagle, Jose Advincula and Pablo Virgilio David concelebrated Mass at the Pontificio Collegio Filippino with Bishop Ruperto Santos, chairman of the CBCP Episcopal Commission on the PCF; college rector Fr. Gregory Gaston; and resident priests, on the eve of the conclave.
The three under-80 Filipino cardinal electors, the biggest number on record, have been staying at the Collegio, the residence for Filipino clergy studying in Rome, since they were summoned by the Vatican for the funeral of the late Pope Francis.
David, the bishop of Kalookan and president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, said they would begin checking in to Casa Santa Martha, the official Vatican lodging of the cardinal electors, on May 6.
“We will be checking in at Santa Martha starting tomorrow, May 6, and surrendering all our communications gadgets to fully dispose ourselves spiritually for the task of identifying the new Pope who will lead the universal Church,” he said on social media.
David, Tagle, pro-prefect at the Vatican’s Dicastery for Evangelization, and Advincula, the archbishop of Manila, are among the 133 cardinals present and eligible to vote for, and be voted as, the 267th pope and successor of St. Peter.
The cardinals will be at St. Peter’s Basilica at 10 a.m. Rome Time on May 7 for the Mass for the Election of the Roman Pontiff.
They will start entering the Sistine Chapel at 4:30 p.m. as the Litany of Saints is chanted. The hymn Veni Creator Spiritus is then sung to invoke the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
The cardinals take their oaths and pledge secrecy one by one, in order of rank, and take their places in the chapel under the magnificent frescoes of Michaelangelo.
The papal master of liturgical ceremonies then shouts “extra omnes” to signal to everyone, except himself and some assistants, to get out of the premises, which is then sealed.
Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa, preacher emeritus of the papal household, will deliver a meditation.
During the voting, done by “scrutiny” or secret ballot, however, anyone who is not a cardinal elector must get out of the chapel.
One round of voting is expected in the evening of May 7. In succeeding days, there will be two rounds of voting in the morning and two rounds in the afternoon.
A two-thirds majority, or 89 votes, is needed to elect the next pope. The cardinals are sequestered until this threshold, a rule in place since 1179, is reached. The most recent conclaves were decided by the fourth or fifth ballot.
The ballots and voting records are all burned in a makeshift stove installed near the chapel door.
The stove is connected to a chimney that will signal to the crowd gathered at St. Peter’s Square and the rest of the world the results of the conclave: black smoke for an inconclusive vote and white smoke for a new pope.
