Vatican prepares for conclave lockdown
The Sistine Chapel was decked out to host a papal election Tuesday as cardinals from around the globe moved into a Vatican guest house ahead of the conclave to choose Pope Francis's successor.
The magnificence of Michelangelo's ceiling frescoes now vaults above more mundane rows of stackable chairs and desks marked with simple place-settings listing the surnames of the cardinal electors, News.Az reports citing Gulf news.
Senior prelates were seen moving wheeled suitcases to the Vatican's Santa Marta guesthouse, with Britain's Cardinal Timothy Radcliffe calling out "bye! bye!" to well-wishers as they prepared for an uncertain period of prayer and politics.
Voting will begin Wednesday after the chapel is placed under a news blackout under pain of excommunication and will continue until one of the cardinals has won two-thirds support in a secret ballot. In the 20th and 21st centuries this has taken between two and five days.
Pope Francis died on April 21, triggering a call for the 133 cardinal electors to gather in the Sistine Chapel to select the new leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics.
With representatives from almost 70 countries across five continents, this conclave is the largest and the most international ever.
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