The 133 cardinal electors who will enter the Conclave tomorrow to choose the 267th Roman Pontiff come from 70 different countries across five continents.

In the Sistine Chapel there will be 52 European cardinals, 37 Americans (16 from North America, 4 from Central America, 17 from South America), 23 Asians, 17 Africans and 4 Oceanians. In total there would be 135 electors, but the presence of the Conclave takes into account the withdrawals due to illness of the Spaniard Antonio Canizares Llovera and the Kenyan John Njue (the fact that he would not have been invited was denied today).

The entire world will be represented in the closed Conclave: in particular, 16 nations from Africa, 15 from America, 17 from Asia, 18 from Europe and four from Oceania. This is the most crowded and international papal election ever, the result of Francis' "decentralizing" policy throughout his pontificate, of appointing more and more cardinals from the frontier Churches and the "peripheries" of the Catholic world.

Thus, for the first time, 12 states have native cardinal electors: Haiti, Cape Verde, the Central African Republic, Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, Sweden, Luxembourg, East Timor, Singapore, Paraguay, South Sudan and Serbia. Italy, with 17 electors, remains the most represented country, but far below the 28 voting cardinals it had in the 2013 Conclave, which elected Jorge Mario Bergoglio (out of a total of 115 electors).

The average age of voters in this round is 70 years and three months, from the youngest, the Ukrainian Archbishop of Melbourne Mykola Bychok, who turned 45 in February, to the oldest, the Spaniard Carlos Osoro Sierra, Archbishop Emeritus of Madrid, who will turn 80 in 10 days, on May 16, and one could say that he is entering the Conclave by the skin of his teeth. It should also be noted that there are 33 cardinals from 17 religious families; the Salesians are the most numerous, five; there are four of the Franciscans of the Order of Friars Minor and the Jesuits, while the Conventual Franciscans are three.

Also casting their vote will be two Dominicans, two Vincentians, two Redemptorists and two Verbite Fathers. In addition, an Augustinian, a Discalced Carmelite, a Cistercian, a Capuchin friar, a member of the Secular Institute Pius X, a Consolata missionary, a missionary of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a Spiritan and a Scalabrinian.

The twelve general congregations concluded today, tomorrow morning at 10:00 a.m. - after all 133 cardinals have been lodged either at Casa Santa Marta or in the adjacent "Santa Marta Vecchia" - the mass "Pro eligendo Pontifice" will be celebrated in the Vatican Basilica : the cardinal dean Giovanni Battista Re will preside, but being 91 years old he will not enter the Sistine Chapel and will leave the presidency of the Conclave to Pietro Parolin. At 4:20 p.m. the procession of the cardinals from the Pauline Chapel to the Sistine Chapel, then from 4:30 p.m. the preliminary operations including the catechesis of Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa, the oath and the "extra omnes" (all out) declared by the Master of Liturgical Celebrations.

Since then the first vote, at the end of which the first "smoke". Until the election of the Pontiff, in the following days four votes are scheduled per day, two in the morning and two in the afternoon , but with only two smokes, in the case of black, at the end of the morning and before the evening. With the election of the new successor of Peter everything stops and the 'white smoke' comes out. The quorum to be elected, and thus arrive at the 'Habemus Papam' of the cardinal protodeacon from the Loggia of St. Peter, is two thirds of the voters: this time, to become Pope, 89 votes are therefore needed.

(Online Union)

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