Vote to elect next pope will take maximum 3 days, says cardinal, as Sistine Chapel gets chimney installed to signal selection

The conclave chimney was installed on the roof of the Sistine Chapel Friday — signaling the start of the conclave that will elect the next Pope — as one cardinal vowed it would only take three days.Starting May 7, papal smoke will waft from the chimney, telling the outside world whether the sequestered cardinals have chosen their religious successor.Black smoke will tell the eagerly watching world that a consensus has not been reached.White will announce that the 267th pope has been elected.If history repeats itself, the successor will be named in just a few days — the average length of the last 10 conclaves was just 3.2 days, with none going on for more than five.The last two elections, including the 2013 one that put Francis as the head of the church, lasted just two days.“Maximum three days,” Salvadoran Cardinal Gregorio Rosa Chavez predicted this week.While the voting might not be as dramatic as the 2024 Academy Award-winning movie “Conclave,” there is sure to be plenty of suspense and mystery shrouding the traditional practice, including who will ultimately take the papal throne.There will be 133 cardinals casting their votes, including several who are eligible for the job themselves.

Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin and the Filipino prelate Luis Antonio Tagle, whose nickname is “Asian Francis,” have been pointed to as obvious frontrunners, but it’s anybody’s game.A frontrunner will likely emerge after the second day of voting, when two votes are held in the morning and two in the afternoon.The first day involves just one informal vote, more so serving as a sounding board than the launch of the voting.If no one is chosen after the first three days, the cardinals will likely take a day-long “pause of prayer” before continuing.

To win the papacy, the candidate must get a two-thirds majority of the vote.Any male baptized Catholic can be elected His Holiness, but for centuries, only cardinals have been selected.An unofficial conclave had...