Hannah Sinclair- The Papal Conclave: It's A very Secret and Ancient Process

The Papal Conclave has begun and to find out how it all works, Clairsy & Lisa spoke to Channel 9 reporter Hannah Sinclair who is in Vatican City.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, so it's all happening at the Vatican in
the sixteenth Chapel. As I'm still having a hard time
coming to terms with the girl on Maths who talked
about the sixteenth Chapel.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
That's so funny, isn't it.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Well, it would be.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Very busy. It is the fourteenth.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
I fluctuate between my head off and crying like a baby.
Not the l just keep going steenth Chapel. Hanna Sinclair
is Channel nine's correspondent joining us from the Vatican City. Hannah,
good morning.

Speaker 3 (00:37):
Good morning, guys.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
It is mourning for us anyway. Gosh, how many people
are how many media are in attendance right.

Speaker 3 (00:46):
Now over there? It is pretty chaotic over here, guys.
I think they said there's about four thousand journalists wow,
currently in the world. Media des sendered on Rome and
with the cardinals. It was the last time everyone got
to sort of ask their questions to them today and

(01:08):
that the press packs you'll see on the news, you know, dozens,
it's not almost one hundred journalists, cameraman you know, crowding
these cardinals as they're sort of having their last few
hours of freedom before they of course get locked in
the Sistine Chapel for the conclaves.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
Right, So they're saying the biggest conclave ever hand, I mean,
how many cardinals have gathered.

Speaker 3 (01:30):
So there's one hundred and thirty three cardinal electives that
are of course under the age of eighty that will
be going in to take part in the conclave, and
only one of them, of course, will emerge, is the
two hundred and sixty seventh Hope. There's a few favorites,
but as they say with conclaves, you know that the
favorites a lot of the time actually don't end up

(01:52):
being the pope. So there's some on the conservative side,
there's some on the progressive side. There's a one in particular,
Lewis Taglay, Cardinal Lewis Taglay, who the ever accessionally coined
the Asian Francis. So he's got similar sort of views
and operating style to of course the late Pope Francis.

(02:16):
He's a favorite amongst they're also Cardinal Pietro Carolyn, who
was Pope Francis, is second in charge, if you will.
He's Italian, so you know he he's sort of been
around the traps a long time, and he's another he's
another contender. But it's one of those things where they're

(02:38):
all saying, as we ask them, or who you know,
who's it going to be? And they they're all saying,
we don't know, you know, you don't know until you
get in there.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
Is it like a private kind of vote? Is it
a bit like being in a court room where they
count them up and say, no, we've got to go again.
I mean, how how does it work?

Speaker 3 (03:00):
Oh, it's you know, it's a very ancient and secret process.
They've effectively transformed Assistine Chapel into a bunker. They have
put channing devices in there. No so they can't yet,
no phone. It's a complete technological blackout. You know. Even
the staff that are working there. There's about one hundred

(03:21):
you know, cleaners, books, doctors. They aren't even going to
be able to contact their families the whole time they're
in there, because yeah, that's it. So it's is. Yeah,
it's a very secret process. And once they're in there,
they you know, cast their ballots, the ballots get counted.

(03:41):
For there to be a new pope, they have they
have to have two thirds of the vote, so in
this case that's eighty nine votes. Someone needs to get
to become hope. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and then of course
they burned the ballots. And if they don't have a pope,
it's the black smoke. If we do have a pope,

(04:02):
it's that white smoke.

Speaker 1 (04:04):
And I believe that chemicals, just to make sure there's
no confusion, because once there was a bit of confusion,
like is that white? We can't work it out what's
going on with I read today that back in the
thirteenth century there was a conclave that lasted two years
and nine months. I don't think that will be the case.
They usually last what about four days.

Speaker 3 (04:25):
Hannah, Yeah, they yeah, Well, guys are check macking on me,
and not three years time that's the case, because I
could will be at Rome. So no, I don't think
that'll be the case. The average is three days, but
in recent times it's been even less than that, so
it's been you know, hours on occasion really so yeah,

(04:49):
so well everyone's saying they're thinking it's going to be
two days, okay, because yeah, well yeah, and you know,
there's this sort of rhetoric around that if they don't
make a decision quickly, it almost suggests there's division, and

(05:11):
they obviously are going to want to portray that to
the world. Yeah, you would imagine, Yeah, you would imagine
those conversations are being had behind closed doors to make
sure that, you know, people are starting to be on
the same page. I don't know.

Speaker 2 (05:26):
Yeah. Yeah, we've just had the federal election here and no,
not in the Vatican. We've just had the federal election,
and that what you know. Of course, the white paper
with the white ballot paper was you need a tree
for each of those, for each of us. But I
believe that the ballot paper is tiny, that these these
cardinals are filling out. Do you know much about the
technical side.

Speaker 3 (05:45):
Of that, the technical side of the paper? I mean,
I don't have the back sent to me to measure this.
That's what you're after, Is that what you're.

Speaker 2 (05:53):
No, I just if you knew much more about how
intricate it was, because it sounds tiny.

Speaker 3 (05:57):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, well it's just yeah, they well they
write their names obviously on the on the ballot. I'm
not their name who they want, hope, Yeah, and then
uh yeah, it gets counted and then those ballots get
burned in a stove and that's stove and the chimney
attached to the Sistine Chapel, that gets get that gets brought in,

(06:20):
that's not there all the time. So that has actually
been brought in and that has been set up in
the past few days in preparation for this, which actually
a lot of people are quite surprised, but I was
when I went into the Sistine Chapel. I yeah, like
many people, was like, oh, there's a stove, but yeah,
it's not in there. It's not in there all the time. Yes,

(06:43):
of course, so that's all been brought in, and yeah,
then it gets learn to gets those chemicals added their
different chemicals, as you guys rightly wanted out to make
to make sure that those colors are very obvious, because
I think I must have seen the same coverage that
you were thing, but especially at nighttime.

Speaker 4 (07:04):
At night time, it can be very hard to tell,
and it will be interesting being here to see how
obvious it is, or if it is hard to see initially.

Speaker 3 (07:18):
What color it is, if it's until it's really trans.

Speaker 1 (07:22):
Wide, it will be interesting. It's a bit of a
once in a lifetime opportunity, really, Hannah to be there
for this, I reckon and you will have all the
updates in Channel nine's news at six o'clock. Thanks