The Conclave Stove Is Now in Place

Vatican workers have installed the simple stove in the Sistine Chapel where ballots will be burned during the upcoming conclave to elect a new pope, as jockeying continued over who among the cardinals is in the running. The Holy See released a video Saturday of the preparations for the May 7 conclave, which included installing the stove and a false floor in the frescoed Sistine Chapel to make it even, per the AP. The footage also showed workers lining up simple wooden tables where the cardinals will sit and cast their votes starting Wednesday, as well as a ramp leading to the main seating area for any cardinal in a wheelchair. On Friday, fire crews were seen on the chapel roof attaching the chimney from which smoke signals will indicate whether a pope has been elected.

The preparations are all leading up to the solemn pageantry of the start of the conclave to elect a successor to Pope Francis, who died April 21 at age 88. Wednesday morning begins with a Mass in St. Peter's Basilica celebrated by the dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, after which the cardinal electors are sequestered from the rest of the world. In the afternoon, they'll proceed into the Sistine Chapel, hear a meditation, and take their oaths before casting their first ballots. If no candidate reaches the necessary two-thirds majority, or 89 votes, on the first ballot, the papers will be burned and black smoke will indicate to the world that no pope was elected.

The cardinals will then head back to their Vatican residence for the night and return to the Sistine Chapel on Thursday morning to conduct two votes in the morning, two in the afternoon, until a winner is found. After every two rounds of voting, the ballots are burned in the stove. If no pope is chosen, the ballots are mixed with cartridges containing potassium perchlorate, anthracene—a component of coal tar—and sulfur to produce black smoke out the chimney. If there's a winner, the ballots are mixed with potassium chlorate, lactose, and chloroform resin to produce the white smoke.

(More papal conclave stories.)