The dead pope receives 9 days of mourning - novemdiales - which is an ancient Roman tradition. For the first 4-6 days he lies in state to be visited by mourners. Then he has a funeral and is buried. Many Popes are bured under the Basilica there but some choose to be buried elsewhere. We don't know yet where John Paul II has chosen.

Then between 15-20 days after death, the cardinals gather in the Sistine Chapel to vote for a new pope. Only those under age 80 vote, meaning 117 cardinals right now. I think we already said that all but 5 of those were personally appointed by John Paul II. So they are all "in line with his policies" for the most part.

They all submit a ballot. If they get enough votes for someone to elect a new pope, they burn them so white smoke goes up the chimney and the world knows. If they don't get enough votes, they burn it to create black smoke and then talk some more to try to come up with another vote. Normally 2/3rds of the cardinals have to choose the same person to make him the pope.

Oh interestingly for over 400 years I believe all popes had always been Italian. Our latest Pope was the first ever Slavic pope (he was from Poland). With Brazil and the US now having so many Catholics, many wonder if we are going to see someone other than an Italian take control of the church.

Thankyou Lisa, that's interesting. I wasn't aware of this before. I knew our last Pope was the first non Italian - can actually still remember all the media hype about it when he was elected.

for those interested
Vatican Customs: the papacy begins and ends in tradition
http://www.freep.com/news/nw/popepickx2e_20050402.html

There has been an English Pope.
Adrian IV (1154-1159).
He was born around 1100 and his real name was Nicholas Breakspear.

I just read Angels and Demons. It's eerie how this all is related in some way to the book, including the smoke signals Lisa described.

Yes, Ashad, a lot of Angels and Demons involved the death of a Pope. But Dan Brown got many of the details wrong - we talk about that in the other forum and on my website if you're curious.

PDMs exactly right - while there had been only Italian popes for 400 years before John Paul II, there have definitely been non-Italian popes in history. I really think it would be appropriate to have a Brazilian pope next. Maybe he could do something to help those children.

JPII has actually changed this part about voting for a new Pope. Even if a small majority agree that a Cardinal can be the new Pope. I'm not sure exactly what a small majority would be exactly, but I guess just the most votes, doesn't really matter the ratio to how many there are. He may have made other changes, I'm not quite sure.

A case here where the teacher is being taught. I was unaware of quite a lot of this and I'm finding it very interesting. Thankyou one and all.

KeetCrazy - actually that's not the change You still need 2/3rds majority to choose a pope. The change is about deadlocks that last over a week. If the group keeps voting and voting and voting, and never electing a new pope, then after 30 rounds I believe, it drops to a majority to choose someone. But that is only for extreme cases so that SOMEONE is chosen.

It does in fact seem that a Brazilian is one of the frontrunners for the next Pope. I think that would be really appropriate, but we shall see.