White smoke chimney installed at Sistine Chapel for conclave
The Catholic Herald• May 3, 2025
Vatican firefighters have installed the all-important chimney on the roof of the Sistine Chapel ahead of next week’s conclave to select a new pope.
The temporary chimney, from which black smoke issues until a pope is elected, at which point white smoke pours forth, was installed on 2 May.
The installation of the chimney is a key step in the lead-up to the conclave, along with officers from the Swiss Guards and the Vatican Gendarmerie, the sovereign nation’s tiny police force, sweeping the famous frescoed chapel for listening devices and bugs, reports the Daily Telegraph.
“They are setting up chairs, benches, tables, the chimney and the stoves, they are removing cameras, they are removing telephones – any electronic devices,” said Luciano Gagliano, a senior manager for the Vatican Museums, which are adjacent to the Sistine Chapel.
“The Sistine Chapel is completely isolated for the entire duration of the conclave. It is off limits for everyone except the cardinals and restricted members of Vatican staff. Everyone has to swear to keep it secret for their entire life. If you reveal one word – excommunication.”
A group of 133 cardinals, eligible to vote because they are under the age of 80, will enter the Sistine Chapel on Wednesday, 7 May, for the first round of voting in the conclave.
From Thursday onwards, there will be four rounds of voting each day – two in the morning and two in the evening.
The proceedings will be conducted in Latin, the official language of the Holy See. Even cashpoints in the Vatican have a Latin option, notes the Telegraph.
After every two rounds, the cardinals’ ballot papers, on which they write the name of the person they want elected pope, are burned in one of two special stoves that are also being installed inside the Sistine Chapel for the conclave.
Black smoke billowing from the chimney indicates that no decision has been reached – a two-thirds majority is required. Once white smoke emerges that will be the signal that the next leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics has been chosen.
Firefighters install the chimney on the roof of the Sistine Chapel, Vatican, 2 May 2025. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images.)
In the past, the Telegraph notes, the colour of the smoke has been “ambiguously grey”, so cartridges containing chemicals are added. Black smoke will be created with cartridges containing potassium perchlorate, anthracene – a component of coal tar – and sulphur. White smoke will be created using a cartridge packed with potassium chlorate, lactose and chloroform resin.
The first of the two stoves being installed, dates back to 1939 and will be used to burn the cardinals’ ballot papers. The second stove, which is relatively new, dating to 2005, will be used to burn the cartridges that will produce either black or white smoke.
The potential length of the conclave is of increasing speculation. The last two were relatively swift, both lasting two days. Argentinian Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was chosen as pope after five rounds of voting.
But this time there is speculation that the conclave could be much longer due to a combination of factors including the higher number of cardinals participating and the divergence of views regarding the direction that the Church should now take in the wake of Pope Francis’s reign.
RELATED: Could this be the longest conclave in modern history?
On the whole, the body of cardinals who will elect Francis’s successor is younger and more diverse, reflecting Pope Francis’s desire for a more global Church that better reflected realities on the ground.
The average age of cardinal-electors (those under 80) is 70 years old; however, there are several who are in their mid-40s and mid-50s, including Cardinal Mykola Bychok of Saints Peter and Paul of Melbourne (Ukrainian), who is 45; Cardinal Giorgio Marengo of Mongolia, 50; Américo Manuel Cardinal Alves Aguiar of Setubal, Portugal, 51; Indian Syro-Malabar Cardinal George Jacob Koovakad, prefect emeritus of interreligious dialogue, 51; and Lithuanian Cardinal Rolandas Cardinal Makrickas, coadjutor archpriest of St. Mary Major, 53.
Some 80 per cent of the cardinal-electors were appointed by Pope Francis, more of whom come from the global south than in previous conclaves.
Whereas 51 per cent of cardinal-electors came from Europe in 2005 and 2013, this year only 43 per cent are from Europe, whereas the percentages of those from Latin America, Asia and the Pacific, and Africa and the Middle East have increased by several percentage points.
This year Latin Americans make up 18 per cent of the cardinal-electors, whereas Asia and Pacific cardinals make up 16 per cent, and cardinals from Africa and the Middle East represent 14 per cent. North American cardinals, who made up 11 per cent in the past two conclaves, are now nine per cent.
Cardinals have now been meeting for eight days in pre-conclave general congregations, during which they are getting to know one another and offering interventions on the state of the world and the Church, to establish a profile for the next Successor of Peter.
During the first general congregations, there was significant criticism of Pope Francis and his legacy among more conservatively minded members of the “old guard”; however, recent interventions have highlighted Francis’s emphasis on evangelisation and synodality.
The flurry of pre-conclave meetings happening in the Vatican have seen criticisms of the late pontiff, with a call for more clarity from his successor, but also praise with some cardinals urging for continuity with Pope Francis’s legacy.
RELATED: Cardinals assess Pope Francis’s legacy as they debate Church’s future ahead of conclave
Firefighters install the chimney on the roof of the Sistine Chapel, Vatican, 2 May 2025. (Photo by GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP via Getty Images.)