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| Sistine Chapel |
For the coming conclave, the Sistine Chapel will be closed to the public. During the same period, Vatican Museums, the Borgia Apartment and Collection of Modern Religious Art will also be closed for visitors. For the 25th time, the Sistine Chapel will go back to being the silent witness of the election of the new Pope. The 115 cardinal electors come under the immortal Michelangelo's frescoes to choose the successor of St. Peter.
The Sistine Chapel - which in 1996 became the official seat of the Conclave with the Apostolic Constitution "Universi Dominici Gregis" of John Paul II - will be equipped with 115 cherry chairs, marked with the name of each Cardinal elector, and twelve wooden tables covered with a beige and burgundy satin cloth, six on the right side and six on the left, arranged in two rows of different levels. In front of the altar, under the Last Judgment, a table for the urn of raw wood, and a lectern with the Gospel on which Cardinals will be sworn in. The velvet bag to pick up the cards and place cards with the names of Cardinals, which will be equipped with pen, folder and a red card for scrutiny, will also soon be ready.
As is the tradition since 1939, the Conclave that elected Pope Pius XII, beyond the marble railing, will have the famous stove (two similar structures attached) that will be used to burn the cards and where the chimney will exit the "smoke". Voting results will in fact be made visible by the color of smoke that come out of the chimney installed on the roof of the Sistine Chapel: black smoke in the cases not reached majority, white smoke for the election of the new Pope.
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The rites of the conclave to elect a successor to Pope Benedict XVI will be opened in St. Peter's Basilica with the Mass "Pro eligendo Pope", after which all the cardinals Voters will go to the Sistine Chapel at the beginning of the real Conclave. To elect the Pope will require a qualified majority of two-thirds of the cardinals electors.
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