Conclave underway. When will we have a new Pope?

NBC's Rory O'Neill reports that the Cardinals are in a "Reflection" period now and then will start the process

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Six forty six Mike Elliott CLUBUS Morning News. Rory O'Neil,
NBC News Radio on the Legacy Retirement Group dot com
phone line. We are under way at Vatican City, the
papal conclave, one hundred and thirty plus cardinals voting on
the next pope. Rory talk about the process.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Well, right, so the right now the cardinals are having
lunch and reflection. They'll actually go behind the doors of
the Sistine Chapel four thirty in the afternoon Rome time,
that's about ten thirty Eastern time, and then begin the process,
you know, his In recent history, these conclaves have taken
about two or three days on average. After about a

(00:36):
half a dozen votes, they've been able to make the selection.
You know, Pope Francis was chosen after two days of
conclave and five different ballots. Pope Benedict was after two days.
So we will probably know by the weekend who the
new Pope is.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
Wow, that's that's a lot faster than I remembered. I
always felt like it took weeks, but it doesn't. It's
just a matter of a couple of days. And this
is the whole white smoke, black smoke thing where they
If they put out the black smoke, it means they
have not reached the decision yet. White smoke means they
have right.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
So when they conduct a vote, they have the ballots.
There are one hundred and thirty three cardinals who are
eligible to vote. After the vote, if they don't have
that two thirds majority, they will burn the ballots. And
if the ballots, if there aren't enough votes for a
new pope, the a smoke will come out of the
chimney as being black. If there are enough ballots to
elect a pope more than those two thirds, then the

(01:28):
smoke will be white. And that's how we'll know a
new pope has been elected.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
Do we have any favorites, any odds on favorites on
who the next pope could be?

Speaker 2 (01:37):
Yeah, it's all speculation, to be honest with you, and
I'm happy to speculate with you. Don't get me wrong. Really,
what we know is really a very limited list of
who actually may be involved. My favorite, of course, everyone's
favorite is an Italian, but he's been the Latin patriarch
of Jerusalem. It's Cardinal pier Battista Pizza ball.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
Up, that's my guy right there. I saw that the.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
Cardinal Tagla of the Philippines though, that's someone to watch
because he represents the Philippines. That part of the world
is fast growing among the Catholic faithful. So does the
Church want to represent or recognize where their exploding population
is or do they want to pick someone from Rome
like the mister Petzabola.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
Yeah. The other one is the current Vatican Secretary of State,
that's Pietro Parolan. He's very experienced there and he knows
his way around Vatican City, so he's another one to
keep your eye on as well.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
Yeah, certainly on the list. Or did they go to
Africa again, another spot that is very exploding in terms
of population and philosophically. Do they want to continue some
of the reforms and the more progressive style of Pope
Francis or do they want to be more traditional like
vote Benedict or Pope John Paul the second. You know,
eighty percent of the voting cardinals have never voted in

(02:58):
a conclave before. They now represent more than seventy different countries.
It's a very different kind of gathering of cardinals than
we've ever seen.