Daily Schedule for Conclave 2013 --- "Holy Smokes"

Full-day schedule for the Conclave:

6:30 a.m.: Breakfast for one hour

7:45 a.m.: Depart from Domus Santa Marta to Apostolic Palace

8:15 a.m.: Hour-long Mass at Pauline Chapel

9:30 a.m.: First two rounds of voting inside Sistine Chapel

12:30 p.m.: Return to Santa Marta

1:00 p.m.: Lunch

4:00 p.m.: Depart from Domus Santa Marta to Apostolic Palace

4:50 p.m.: Remaining two rounds of voting inside Sistine Chapel

7:15 p.m.: Vespers (prayer) at Sistine Chapel

7:30 p.m.: Return to Santa Marta

8:00 p.m.: Dinner

The fumata (holy smoke) after the morning votes will appear between 11:30 a.m.-Noon, while the smoke for the evening votes will appear between 6:30-7 p.m.

In the event that a Pope is chosen during the first votes of the morning or evening, the smoke would appear at around 10:30 a.m. or 6 p.m

Storia del Conclave ITALIANO - Video

Storia del Conclave - video

Universi Dominici Gregis - Constitution on Sede Vacante and the Conclave

Oath of Secrecy to be taken by the Cardinals during the Conclave 2013

At a suitable time before the beginning of the election [the Conclave], the persons indicated in this Constitution, having been duly warned about the meaning and extent of the oath which they are to take, shall, in the presence of the Cardinal Camerlengo or another Cardinal delegated by him, and of two Pronotaries Apostolic, swear and sign the oath according to the following formula:

I, N.N., promise and swear that, unless I should receive a special faculty given expressly by the newly-elected Pontiff or by his successors, I will observe absolute and perpetual secrecy with all who are not part of the College of Cardinal electors concerning all matters directly or indirectly related to the ballots cast and their scrutiny for the election of the Supreme Pontiff.

I likewise promise and swear to refrain from using any audio or video equipment capable of recording anything which takes place during the period of the election within Vatican City, and in particular anything which in any way, directly or indirectly, is related to the process of the election itself.

I declare that I take this oath fully aware that an infraction thereof will incur the penalty of automatic (‘latae sententiae’) excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See.

So help me God and these Holy Gospels which I touch with my hand."

---jlf

The Conclave 2013 short explanation video

Here is a short video from CNN which explains the Conclave process in an abbreviated manner.  

The First Conclave

The custom of keeping the Cardinals enclosed under key (conclave) was adopted in the election of Pope Gregory X in 1271. After Clement IV had died in 1268 the See remained vacant for three years.  In the pontifical city of Viterbo the 18 cardinals present could not come to agree, despite pressure from  super power countries like France. 

One cardinal, Bonaventura of Bagnoregio called the military captain to gather the cardinals together in the Episcopate Palace in Viterbo and to lock it down until they are able to resolve the problem. The guards surrounded the palace, and locked it down.  This did not seem to affect the cardinals inside.  The people of Viterbo, fed-up with the waiting, had climbed on the roof and had taken the roof tiles off so that, rain, cold and heat would push them to make a decision.  In addition, food was rationed down to bread and water which was lowered down through the opened roof. 

Sickness and starvation had finally won them over to agree on a candidate on September 1, 1271.  Pope Gregory X, a skilled canon lawyer, had enacted a constitution (Ubi periculum of 1274) which would from then on regulate the duration and rules for the election of the new pontiff under lock and key, the so called conclave. --- jlf

Episcopate Palace, Viterbo, Italy - site of the first conclave 1271

Major Protest Against Gay Marriage Bill in France

President Francois Hollande's plans to change French laws legalizing same-sex marriage.  I find these laws very interesting.  The most amazing thing about it is how such a minority can have so much power as to change the law of the land.  Marriage for the gays it is called.  Perhaps it is a vendetta against the Catholic Church that has not listen to a minority for such a long time (this perhaps is very true) and now with a little money and influence makes its presence known... but the gays and the straits can't forget that we come from a  mother and a father.   Laws like these give my parents a black eye if you will because such laws make a farce out of the whole thing.  If a government can call "marriage" between  two men and two women legal than anything goes... eventually a liberal government must allow for people to marry their own dog, cat, goat, donkey and eventually their own cell phone!   What is there to stop such stupidity in a free democratic society.  And this we call freedom?  I think we as a collective society have become dull, numb and dumb in the present age. ---- jlf 

Fr. Reginald Foster, OCD -- "the Latin Lover" Speaks

Fr. Reginald comments on his arrival to Rome in 1962, "The day after I came to Rome I went to the Roman Forum and I saw all this stuff that I had read about as a kid and studied, the place Cicero gave his orations.  I just lost my mind... Here was this whole living language which I had come to lone in the United States... To come here and to imagine, as I still like to do, people walking around the Forum speaking Latin... to read Cicero's orations out loud and hear the same words bouncing off the walls that bounced off the walls in Ceasar's presence in September of 46 B.C. It's  just too much"