What to expect at this week's papal conclave
VATICAN CITY (WABC) -- Eyewitness News Anchor Joe Torres will be in Vatican City to cover the upcoming papal conclave -- the ancient tradition to elect the next pope.
One hundred thirty five Catholic cardinals are eligible to participate in the conclave, but two have indicated they will not attend. Two of these cardinals are from the Tri-State Area -- Timothy Cardinal Dolan from the Archdiocese of New York and Joseph Cardinal Tobin, the Archbishop of Newark.
What is a conclave?
After Pope Francis was laid to rest, the focus now turns to finding his successor.
Beginning Wednesday, the highly secretive, highly traditional process of picking the next pope will begin.
The day starts with a Mass celebrated by Giovanni Battista Re, the dean of the College of Cardinals.
After that, the cardinals proceed to the Sistine Chapel and take their seats. A priest will deliver a meditation and the cardinals then take an oath.
Once the doors are shut, the conclave then begins. The cardinals are cut off from the outside world. Televisions, newspapers and radios are not allowed.
The cardinals are seated in two rows on both sides of the chapel. They walk down a center aisle and cast their ballots at the chapel altar in front of Michelangelo's Last Judgment.
The cardinals will take a single vote on Wednesday and at the same time, tens of thousands will gather in St. Peter's Square with their eyes fixed on the Sistine Chapel chimney.
White smoke means there is a new pope. Black smoke means the voting continues until someone gets the two-thirds majority.
If a pope is not elected in that first vote, the cardinals will return to their quarters and then conduct four votes each subsequent day -- two in the morning, and two in the afternoon.
Who are the top contenders to be the next pope?
As dozens of cardinals arrived for their pre-conclave meetings on Friday, it was probably not lost on them that the next pope was among them.
So who will lead the world's 1.4 billion Catholics? There are some possible contenders who have emerged.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin from Italy is the Vatican Secretary of State -- basically second-in-command to the pope. He was elevated to cardinal by Pope Francis and has spent years building relationships with Catholics in China and Vietnam.
Matteo Zuppi is the Archbishop of Bologna. He was also made a cardinal by Pope Francis and just like the late pope, he was an inner-city priest who has focused on the poor.
Luis Antonio Tagle from the Philippines was elevated to cardinal by Pope Benedict, but it was Francis who brought him to the Vatican to head its evangelization office.
Fridolin Ambongo Bensungu from Africa is one of the continent's most outspoken Catholics. He is an archbishop in the Congo and is considered conservative.
Peter Erdo of Hungary has long been considered a front-runner among cardinals looking to return to the conservative ways of Pope John Paul II.
What did the blockbuster-hit movie 'Conclave' get right and wrong?
Immediately after Pope Francis' death, cardinals headed to the Vatican, and people around the world headed to their TV sets.
Streaming viewership for the movie 'Conclave' increased a whopping 283 percent after Pope Francis died on April 21.
But just how accurate was the critically-acclaimed film? It provides a fascinating insight into the conclave process -- but the producers took a few creative liberties.
