Conclave 2025: An inside track
News
“I still can’t believe the number of people who want to talk about the conclave,” Cardinal John Dew said before taking to the lectern at the annual Australian Catholic Press Association (ACPA) conference in Christchurch in late August.
He had, he told us, been asked first to share something about preserving human voices and faces and how that ties in with Pope Leo’s inaugural encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, published three months ago.
“The encyclical is about the grandeur of humanity and is about preserving that grandeur, preserving the gift and the wonder of humanity and not allowing AI (artificial intelligence) to take over our lives, to take over decision making and the way we collaborate and work together,” he said.
At a time when human dignity is threatened by new forms of dehumanization, “it is our pressing duty to remain profoundly human” he said.
It was an enthralling and timely delivery and everyone listened attentively. Cardinal Dew Is 78-years-old and has not reached high position without knowing how to command his audience every time.
About 40 minutes into his talk, he turned to the conclave. It being a media gathering, the uplift in attention was (somewhat embarrassingly) immediate. The conclave in May last year which resulted in Robert Prevost becoming Pope Leo XIV, has proven an endless media and public fascination and Cardinal Dew, as one of the 133 cardinals empowered to elect the new pontiff, had the consummate inside track. His insight was fascinating.
There were, he said, 12 days of meetings (general congregations) which took place between the death of Pope Francis and the beginning proper of the conclave.
“It was very clear that was a lot of talk about Francis’ legacy. It became clear that we are not to elect a replica of Pope Francis but to elect a successor to St Peter.”
Cardinal Dew reminded us that Pope Francis died on Easter Monday last year and, famously asked to be taken to St Peter’s Square by his long-time carer 24 hours earlier, where “all Francis could do was to raise his hand”.
Shortly after, Cardinal Dew’s sister rang him to ask ‘is it true?’ The cardinal, who had heard nothing about the pope’s death, “turned on the TV very quickly”.
“Every channel had presenters already dressed in black and the world was in mourning for a figure who had meant so much.”
All cardinals had been told be ready several weeks earlier and Tuesday and the morning after the pontiff’s death was frantic Cardinal Dew said. An immediate flight to Rome was somehow found but somewhere to stay proved less easy to fix.
“People think you can just walk in,” he said.
“They found me a room some hours later. I got to Rome on Thursday midday and went to Vatican to see when the general congregations were starting.”
The public frenzy, meanwhile, was growing hourly.
“On Friday morning I went for early morning walk and saw a crowd five or six kilometres long and 10 people deep to see Francis.” The Basilica (where Francis’ body was kept) stayed open around the night so huge were the crowds.
Later, the cardinals were told to be at the Basilica at 9am on Saturday.
“I could see two Swiss guards and realized the pope’s body was still there. I saw a group coming in and it was the New Zealand Prime Minister (Christopher Luxon).
Out of courtesy he went over to say hello.
‘Cardinal John, thank you so much for coming to meet us’…” the PM said.
The 12 days of general congregations that followed gave everyone the opportunity to speak but anyone aged over 80 does not take part in the voting itself.
The conclave has to start within 15 days of death of the pope we heard, with most cardinals last year keen on as long a time beforehand as they could get.
Eventually they settled on Thursday 7 May and were asked to gather in Santa Marta the afternoon before.
“Everything you had was x-rayed, smart watches and electronic (gadgets) taken and put in a sealed bag to be returned after the election,” Cardinal Dew said.
Room names were drawn by lot from numbers one to 133 (Cardinal Dew was given number 41) to allot bedrooms so avoid any possibility of favouritism or the improper. Even the windows in all rooms were sealed.
On 7 May, all cardinals were asked to be in the Sistine Chapel by 3pm (where all conclaves have been held since 1492, the year Christopher Columbus first arrived in America for further context).
One hundred and thirty-three (the number of cardinals voting) oaths were sworn in Latin with each cardinal placing a hand on the book of the Gospels. It takes some time Cardinal Dew said.
As with the bedrooms, the ballots were chosen by lots and if 132 or 134 votes were counted – and not 133 – everything would start again…
It was four and a half hours after the 3pm start when the first vote was cast and by which time there were thousands of people in St Peter’s Square outside. Voting itself was simple if lengthy, each cardinal placing his choice after the words ‘I elect as pontiff’…
After a further two votes on Thursday – a two-thirds majority is the threshold – the name Robert Prevost was coming to the fore quickly, Cardinal Dew said with the fourth vote the affirmation.
From where he was sat in the Sistine Chapel, Cardinal Dew could see Robert Prevost already in deep reflection.
The pontiff elect was then asked two simple questions.
“Do you accept?” and “What is your name?”
He answered, of course, Leo.
He then went into the Room of Tears “for quite a long time,” the cardinal said, presumably writing his first words for the masses outside.
“When he came back we all went up to him and greeted him,” before his St Peter’s Square entrance and the now iconic first words, ‘Peace be with you’.
Leo is forever calm and never seems to be rattled said Cardinal Dew. To illustrate this, when Robert Prevost became the prefect for the dicastery of bishops in Rome he went to a local gym but didn’t say who he was. Cardinal Dew allowed himself a good chuckle at what the fellow gym goers will have thought when they found out who they’d been training alongside.
It showed too, the measure of the cardinal as well as his new boss.
