Conclave will begin on Wednesday, May 7

The nearly 180 cardinals present (just over a hundred voters) gathered in the fifth general congregation held on Monday have decided that the conclave to choose the 267 Successor of San Pedro will begin on May 7, according to the press office of the Holy See.

This is thus complied with the provisions of the Apostolic Constitution The universe dominic of the flock which stipulates that the meeting must begin between the fifteenth and the twenty -day after the death of the Bishop of Rome.

He has to give the cardinals time to reach the eternal city if they have not been able to do it immediately after the death of the pontiff to attend their funeral and the general congregations.

For the choice of the new Pope, the cardinals will vote four times – two in the morning and two in the afternoon – until they find a qualified majority of two thirds.

To date, the absence of one of the cardinals, Antonio Cañizares, Archbishop Emeritus of Valencia (Spain), for health reasons, for which it will be 134 wedded those that will be found inside the Sistine Chapel when the master of the liturgical celebrations Pontificals say the famous “Extra omnes” will be confirmed.

The Sistine Chapel, closed by “the demands of the conclave”

The Vatican Museums website Point out That the Sistine Chapel, where the cardinals will vote in strict secret by the 267 successor of San Pedro “will be closed to the public as of Monday, April 28, 2025 due to the demands of the conclave.”

“Likewise, all visits to the Vatican gardens are already suspended and the necropolis of the Triumphalis road,” he says.