The conclave, whose etymology is obviously Latin - from cum clave meaning (closed) ‘with a key’ - is the rite that for centuries has accompanied the ‘birth’ of new Popes, from the votes under the gaze of Michelangelo’s frescoes in the Sistine Chapel to the iconic white smoke that precedes the traditional habemus papam (we have a pope).

Longstanding rumours of possible scheming and skullduggery have been depicted in fictional works like the recent film Conclave, from Robert Harris’s bestselling novel, but they are what they are, strictly fictional.

Before the official start of the conclave, the cardinal electors reach Rome where they find accommodation at Casa Santa Marta, the same building in which late Pope Francis had decided to live, giving up the luxurious papal apartment.

On the day of the assembly, they reach St. Peter’s Basilica for the mass in view of the election, presided over by the cardinal dean, in this case Giovanni Battista Re.

Immediately afterwards they put on their choir clothes and set out in procession towards the Sistine Chapel, which is set up to welcome the cardinals with benches for elections and vote counting and the stove where the notes and voting cards will be burned.

The maximum number of cardinal electors is set at 120 even though at the moment there are 135 eligible to vote and it is not impossible, as has happened in the past, that exceptions to the rule may be granted.

Everyone is forbidden to use any communication device or make contact with the outside. It is only at the end of the oath - which ends with the phrase extra omnes (everyone out) - that the conclave officially begins, with the locking of the door to the Sistine Chapel and the start of the voting operations.

If the elections begin in the afternoon of the first day, only one vote will be held, while on the following days there will be four in total, two in the morning and two in the afternoon.

Once the name has been written on the ballot paper under the phrase Eligo in Summum Pontificem (I elect as supreme pontiff), each individual cardinal elector heads towards the altar with the folded and clearly visible ballot paper.

He places it on a silver plate resting on an urn and then lets it slide inside.

Once the voting session is over, the first two scrutineers open and silently read the name written on the ballot paper, while the third pronounces the name.

The ballots are punched and tied together, to then be burned inside the stove.

If there is no election, a mixture will be added that will colour the smoke black.

If not, however, the dean turns to the elected candidate to ask him whether he accepts the position and what name will be chosen.

Only then will the ballots be burned, adding white dye that will announce the election of the new Pope from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel.

Only at the end will the vesting take place in the so-called ‘room of tears’ in the sacristy of the Sistine Chapel.

It will then be up to the cardinal protodeacon to announce the election from the central loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica, from which the new Pope will subsequently appear for the Urbi et Orbi (to the city and the world) blessing.

ANSA