This period of transition between popes, referred to as the time of the "empty chair" (Latin: sede vacante), begins with the death of a pope and ends with the election of a new head of the church.

Three phases follow one after the other: the days leading up to the funeral of the deceased pope, a further phase of mourning and preparations by the cardinals for the conclave, and finally the conclave itself.

Soon after the pope's death, nine days of daily solemn funeral masses, the Novendiale, take place in St. Peter's basilica.

It is a special time in the Catholic Church and is accompanied by many small signs of great symbolism.

As of Monday, Vatican documents no longer bear the emblem of the Holy See, but a special coat of arms for the vacancy. It shows the crossed keys of St. Peter under an open umbrella.

This symbol also appears at the top of the Vatican newspaper Osservatore Romano until a new pope is elected.

Mourning and farewell to the deceased pope

The funeral of the deceased pope should take place within six days. Francis will be buried on Saturday. This time frame also applied to John Paul II in 2005, as well as after the deaths of Paul VI and John Paul I in August and late September 1978.

The funerals for their predecessors were even quicker: John XXIII was buried within three days in 1963, Pius XII within four days in 1958.

In the time leading up to the funeral there is also an opportunity for the faithful to bid farewell to the deceased pope in St. Peter's basilica.

However, Francis is the first pope in almost 150 years not to have his final resting place in this place of worship.

He will instead be buried in a simple tomb in the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore, the city's most important Marian church and one close to his heart, not far from Rome's main train station.

He stipulated this in his will, which was published on Monday, and in his autobiography Hope, published in January 2025, and in several interviews over the past two years.

Meetings of the cardinals in Rome

The meetings of the cardinals leading up to the conclave begin even before the funeral.

This series of "consistories" — councils of the cardinals — before and after the day of the funeral is attended not only by cardinals under the age of 80 who are eligible to be elected pope (currently 135), but also by all cardinals of the universal church (currently 252).

These "pre-conclave" exchanges are important because the 135 cardinals from 71 countries do not all know each other, not even in terms of their policy positions within the church.

These meetings take place in the Vatican Synod Hall. The cardinals eligible to be elected pope must attend the meetings as soon as they arrive in Rome.

In the aftermath of Francis' election on March 13, 2013, the importance of these consultations became clear, partly because who would eventually be nominated was the subject of much debate.

And because the then-Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, addressed the state of the Catholic Church and the faith in a spectacular speech — and in doing so put himself forward as a candidate.

However, the cardinals do not only consult in this one large meeting or in informal discussions on the fringes, as Pope Francis made clear in his autobiography.

In the days before the start of the conclave, an archbishop had visited him in his quarters in the center of Rome and talked to him about names that were being traded. A conversation that made him "uncomfortable," according to Francis.

Influential cliques among the cardinals can be based on language or continental ties but are more likely to form around progressive or reactionary policy orientations.

The (sometimes long) wait for the white smoke

The cardinals entitled to vote must enter the conclave at least 15 and no later than 20 days after the death of the pope. They stay in the Casa Santa Marta, the Vatican guest house where Francis also lived as pope — without cell phones, computers or newspapers.

In the morning, there is a mass "for the election of the Bishop of Rome" in St. Peter's Basilica. In the afternoon, the clergy then move to the Sistine Chapel, where they will also vote.

John Paul II described the entire process of the conclave and papal election in detail in a Apostolic Constitution in 1996. "No other document in the history of the papacy is so meticulous and detailed with regard to the vacancy," church historian and papal expert Jörg Ernesti told DW. And then the election takes place.

On the day of Francis' death, some commentators were still expecting a "long conclave" due to the larger number of participants.

In the 20th century, conclaves lasted between two and five days. The two conclaves of 2005 and 2013 lasted just 26 and 27 hours. They are considered two of the shortest conclaves in history.

Ernesti refers to the round of cardinals who elected Pope Pius VII in 1800 with a view to an extremely long conclave. They met on December 1, 1799, and did not disperse until March 14, 1800. After 1831, conclaves lasted no longer than six or seven days.

After each unsuccessful ballot, the ballot papers are burned in a special oven with wet straw and oil or pitch. The black smoke that rises through the chimney of the Sistine Chapel means that there is not yet a new pope. Once a new pope has been found, flax is added to the ballot papers, which turns the smoke white.

In any case, today's cardinals no longer have the problem of being able to arrive in time for the conclave.

But things used to be very different. In 1875, the 83-year-old Pope Pius IX appointed the then Archbishop of New York, John McCloskey (1810-1885), as Cardinal. It was a sensation: the first cardinal from the so-called "New World" and the first non-European.

After the death of Pius IX, McCloskey made the long journey by ship to Rome. But when he arrived there two weeks later, the new Pope Leo XIII had already been elected.

This article was originally written in German.