Final preparations and the entrance into Conclave

As we first wrote on Saturday of this week, all the auxiliary personnel involved in the care of the coming Conclave will take the oath of secrecy this afternoon at 5:30pm in the Pauline Chapel.  The ceremony of oath taking will be presided over by the Cardinal Camerlengo, His Eminence, Tarcisio Bertone. About 90 people will be sworn in, including:

• the Secretary of the College of Cardinals; 
• the Master of the Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff, Monsignor Guido Marini and masters of pontifical ceremonies; 
• the religious who supervise the pontifical sacristy; 
• the religious charged with hearing confessions in the various languages; 
• doctors and nurses; 
• the personnel for preparing meals and for cleaning; 
• the staff of florists and technical service personnel; 
• drivers responsible for transporting the Cardinal electors from the Domus Sanctae Marthae to the Apostolic Palace; 
• security guards and surveillance (Gendarmerie and Swiss Guards) 

Masters of Pontifical Ceremonies

 The pro eligendo Romano Pontifice Mass will be celebrated in the Vatican Basilica tomorrow, at 10:00am local time. The booklet for the Mass is available on the Vatican website The Dean of the College of Cardinals, His Eminence, Angelo Sodano willl preside at the pro eligendo Mass; all the Cardinals will also concelebrate. In 2005 this Mass lasted one hour and 40 minutes in duration.  Journalists, photographers and camerapersons who wish to be present at the pro eligendo Mass must first secure the requisite permissions from the Vatican Office of Accreditation and Communications.

The ceremony of entrance into Conclave is described in detail in the Ordo Rituum Conclavis (Book of Rites of the Conclave). It will begin on Tuesday afternoon at 4:30pm and will entail:

• An opening prayer in the Pauline Chapel; and
• A procession through the Sala Regia to the Sistine Chapel.

The order of the procession will be as follows: 

• cross, 
• choir, 
• prelates, 
• Secretary of the Conclave, 
• His Eminence, Prosper Cardinal Grech, O.S.A., Cardinal Deacon of Santa Maria Goretti (who will lead the meditation), 
• then the Cardinal electors in the reverse order of their hierarchical precedence (i.e., Cardinal deacons, Cardinal priests, then Cardinal bishops). 
• Last in the procession will be Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re and the Master of Ceremonies, Monsignor Guido Marini.

The procession and the entrance into the Sistine Chapel are accompanied by the singing of the Litany of Saints and the hymn Veni Creator Spiritus.

In the Sistine Chapel the oath is sworn. The celebrant recites the common formula of the oath:

We, the Cardinal electors present in this election of the Supreme Pontiff promise, pledge and swear, as individuals and as a group, to observe faithfully and scrupulously the prescriptions contained in the Apostolic Constitution of the Supreme Pontiff John Paul II, Universi Dominici Gregis, published on 22 February 1996. We likewise promise, pledge and swear that whichever of us by divine disposition is elected Roman Pontiff will commit himself faithfully to carrying out the munus Petrinum of Pastor of the Universal Church and will not fail to affirm and defend strenuously the spiritual and temporal rights and the liberty of the Holy See. In a particular way, we promise and swear to observe with the greatest fidelity and with all persons, clerical or lay, secrecy regarding everything that in any way relates to the election of the Roman Pontiff and regarding what occurs in the place of the election, directly or indirectly related to the results of the voting; we promise and swear not to break this secret in any way, either during or after the election of the new Pontiff, unless explicit authorization is granted by the same Pontiff; and never to lend support or favour to any interference, opposition or any other form of intervention, whereby secular authorities of whatever order and degree or any group of people or individuals might wish to intervene in the election of the Roman Pontiff.

Each of the Cardinal electors, according to the order of precedence, will then take the oath according to the following formula:

And I, N. Cardinal N., do so promise, pledge and swear. Placing his hand on the Gospels, he will add: So help me God and these Holy Gospels which I touch with my hand.

When the oaths have all been taken, the call Extra omnes rings out, and the doors of the Sistine Chapel are closed.  In 2005, the oath-taking took 57 minutes.

Prospero Cardinal Grech, OSA

 Inside the Sistine Chapel, the meditation is given by Cardinal Grech, then there is a possible first ballot, tally and burning of the ballots, commonly referred to as fumata (literally, 'smoke'), then the celebration of Vespers. In 2005, the first black fumata occurred at 8:04pm.

On their seats in the Sistine Chapel, the Cardinal electors will find printed copies of the Apostolic Constitution Universi Dominici Gregis, the Ordo Rituum Conclavis (Book of Rites of the Conclave), and a book of the Liturgy of the Hours.