Ahead of the conclave, Vatican staff vow secrecy under threat of excommunication

Cleaners and cooks. Doctors and nurses. Even drivers and elevator operators.

The support staff for the cardinals who will elect the successor to Pope Francis took an oath of secrecy Monday ahead of the conclave that's starting on Wednesday.

The punishment for breaking the oath? Automatic excommunication.

The oaths of about 100 people were taken in the Pauline Chapel at the Vatican for all those assigned to the conclave, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said. They include clerics in support roles, among them confessors speaking various languages.

The cardinals will take their oaths in the Sistine Chapel on Wednesday, before they cast their first ballots.

An array of lay women and men are required to house and feed the cardinals. A conclave's duration cannot be predicted — and it will only be known when white smoke rises out of the Sistine Chapel chimney to signal a winner.

All those people will be sequestered to be on hand for any medical needs, and maintain the majesty and ritual appropriate for the election of the next head of the 1.4 billion-strong Catholic Church. Of the 133 cardinals expected to vote at the conclave, 108 were appointed by Francis.

The cardinals will be living in residences on Vatican grounds, and they can either walk the roughly 1 kilometer (less than a mile) to the Sistine Chapel or take a special bus that runs only within the sealed Vatican grounds — and for that, drivers are also needed.

Phones and secrecy

Bruni initially said Monday that cardinals would be asked to leave their mobile phones at their Vatican residence, Santa Marta, but that they wouldn’t be confiscated.

But hours later, at an evening briefing, he said that they would hand their phones over at Santa Marta and only get them back at the end of the conclave.

But, he added, the matter goes “beyond just technical questions," but is a "process united also with prayer, with meditation, with thought about who the person could be whom the Lord has identified as the pope of Rome.”

The Vatican also plans to use signal jamming around the Sistine Chapel and the residences to prevent electronic surveillance or communication outside the conclave, with the Vatican gendarmes overseeing the security measures.

The oath

The provisions for the oath-taking are laid down in Vatican law.

St. John Paul II rewrote the regulations on papal elections in a 1996 document that remains largely in force, though Pope Benedict XVI amended it twice before he resigned in 2013. He tightened the oath of secrecy, making clear that anyone who reveals what went on inside the conclave faces automatic excommunication.

Under John Paul’s rules, excommunication was always a possibility, but Benedict made it explicit.

Those taking the oath now declare that they “promise and swear that, unless I should receive a special faculty given expressly by the newly elected pontiff or by his successors, I will observe absolute and perpetual secrecy with all who are not part of the College of Cardinal electors concerning all matters directly or indirectly related to the ballots cast and their scrutiny for the election of the Supreme Pontiff.

“I likewise promise and swear to refrain from using any audio or video equipment capable of recording anything which takes place during the period of the election within Vatican City, and in particular anything which in any way, directly or indirectly, is related to the process of the election itself.

“I take this oath fully aware that an infraction thereof will incur the penalty of automatic excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See. So help me God and these Holy Gospels, which I touch with my hand.”

A final appeal for victims

As the Vatican prepared for the conclave, its child protection advisory commission on Monday urged cardinals to prioritize the clergy sexual abuse issue, saying the Catholic Church’s very credibility depends on accountability, transparency and justice for victims.

The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors is a Vatican department created by Pope Francis to advise the church on best practices to fight abuse. Made up of clergy and lay experts, the commission issued a call to prayer to the cardinals who are meeting in Rome this week before entering into the conclave on Wednesday.

“Let no concern of scandal obscure the urgency of truth,” the text said. “Let no consideration for reputation impede our paramount responsibility to take action on behalf of those who have been abused.”

The abuse scandal has badly compromised the Catholic hierarchy’s credibility in many countries around the world, with revelations of decades of abuse and cover-up by bishops and religious superiors. Francis and before him Pope Benedict XVI took some steps to address the scandal, but a culture of impunity still reigns, there is no transparency from the Vatican about cases, and victims say the very process the church has put in place to deal with allegations is often retraumatizing.

The statement acknowledged the harm the scandal has done to the church’s reputation and said the cardinals bear a responsibility to victims. “The church’s credibility depends on real accountability, transparency, and action rooted in justice,” it said.

The commission’s president, Cardinal Sean O’Malley, is participating in the pre-conclave discussions but will not be voting in the election itself because he is over the age limit of 80.

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