By Vanessa Gera, Associated Press
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Drivers and elevator operators. Cleaners and cooks. Nurses and doctors.
All workers who are helping the cardinal electors at the upcoming papal conclave are taking a sacred oath of secrecy this Monday, just prior to the conclave’s scheduled start on Wednesday. The penalty for violating the oath? Automatic excommunication.
A picture taken April 30 and released May 3 by Vatican Media shows workers preparing the Sistine Chapel for the conclave, which officially begins May 7.
Not only clerics will be in secondary positions—such as confessor priests who can speak several languages—but a variety of laymen who will offer accommodation, food, and other aid to the cardinals while the conclave is in session.
While the length of the conclave is impossible to predict, it only ends with the appearance of white smoke at the Sistine Chapel chimney—to signal the election of a new pope to lead the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.
All support personnel will be isolated for the duration, ready to provide medical attention, logistical assistance, and maintain the dignity and beauty that such a historic event warrants.
A Sacred Oath
The secrecy requirements are rooted in Vatican law.
In 1996, St. John Paul II revamped the papal election and regulations process, and most of those regulations still hold today. Pope Benedict XVI then revised the regulations twice before his resignation in 2013, making the oath of secrecy tighter and explicitly stating that anyone leaking information from the conclave would incur automatic excommunication—a penalty reserved solely for the Apostolic See.
Previously, excommunication was threatened under John Paul’s rules. Benedict made it a complete reality for infractions, and clarified that assistants and secretaries are to have “absolute and perpetual secrecy” and are strictly not permitted to use any form of recording technologies.
The new oath states:
I solemnly swear and promise that, unless expressly permitted by the newly elected pontiff or his successors, I will maintain absolute and perpetual secrecy with all persons not belonging to the College of Cardinal Electors concerning all matters, whether directly or indirectly related to the casting and examination of ballots for the election of the Supreme Pontiff.
I also promise and swear to abstain from using any audio or video device by which anything which takes place during election time in Vatican City, and especially anything related to the process of the elections themselves, can be recorded.
So help me God and these Holy Gospels which I touch with my hand.
Preparations for the Sistine Chapel
The Sistine Chapel was transformed, a weeklong makeover to gear up for the conclave following the April 21 funeral for Pope Francis who passed away aged 88.
The area was made even by laying down a floating floor and room was left for ceremonial furniture like fabric-draped tables laid out by Vatican upholsterers. The vintage stove—used to signal votes casting—found a home in its traditional corner. Firefighters installed the chimney which will shoot off white or black smoke depending on the vote result.
Twelve maintenance staff and technicians will be retained within the conclave area throughout the process according to the Vatican City State government. They’ll manage lighting, temperature, electrical, and ceremonial functions such as the stove.
As part of conclave tradition, the windows of the voting chamber are covered over with black for utter secrecy. Also, nearly 80 openings along the border are sealed with lead a day prior to conclave.
Two of the higher officials of the Pontifical Swiss Guard, a major and a colonel, are part of the group swearing an oath. They will be coordinating security efforts around the Sistine Chapel, the old and frescoed site where the 133 cardinal electors will cast their ballots for their future pope.
