By CNA Staff
CNA Newsroom, May 3, 2025 / 18:21 pm
The conclave to elect Pope Francis’ successor will begin on May 7, as the Church enters the final preparatory phase for choosing its 267th pope.
Follow here for live updates of the latest news and information on the papal transition:
Edward Pentin, Vatican correspondent for the National Catholic Register (CNA’s sister news partner) and co-founder of CollegeOfCardinalsReport.com, reports on “The World Over with Raymond Arroyo” about the general congregations going on in Rome leading up to the conclave and how the cardinals coming from all over the world will get to know each other at these gatherings:
Today, 177 cardinals — including 127 electors — gathered for the 9th General Congregation in the Vatican. Discussions centered on Church communion, global fraternity, and the legacy of Pope Francis. With preparations at Casa Santa Marta nearing completion, all cardinals are… pic.twitter.com/qlqSBU2dzN
Pope Francis desired that consecrated Catholic men and women possess “a heart and a spirit pure and free enough” to love and serve the least among us, Cardinal Ángel Fernández Artime says at the eighth Novendiales Mass on Saturday.
The prelate, the former prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, celebrated and delivered the homily at the second-to-last Mass held in mourning for the Holy Father, who passed away on April 21.
Cardinal Ángel Fernández Artime presided over the 8th Novendiales Mass for Pope Francis from St. Peter's Basilica, in which he urged the faithful to make the apostles' Easter joy a true "program of life. pic.twitter.com/NPd8UMohym
At the eighth Novendiales Mass on Saturday, Pope Francis was hailed as a “humble and compassionate pastor,” one who maintained “unwavering confidence in the vocation of women religious.”
Sister Mary Barron, the president of the International Union of Superiors General, said at the Mass that the late pope “invited us out into the world and among all of God’s creation to heal and accompany those most in need.”
Here are the first images of Michelangelo’s majestic Sistine Chapel nearly ready to welcome the cardinal electors for the upcoming conclave on May 7. pic.twitter.com/t6xOR9XuZC
Cardinal Francis Arinze has said that the Church needs “a pope who is full of fire for the kingdom of Christ.”
In an interview with EWTN earlier this year, the 92-year-old cardinal reflected on the qualities needed in the next pope, offered wisdom to younger cardinals who will enter their first conclave, and spoke of the challenges facing the Church today.
“We want a pope who is full of fire for the kingdom of Christ,” the Nigerian cardinal said. “A pope who is there spreading the Gospel. … A pope through whom people will believe.”
CNA Rome correspondent Courtney Mares has more.
Just days before the Conclave starts, journalists are pressing for statements from the Cardinals already in the Vatican. Here’s how the Cardinals try to avoid them. pic.twitter.com/jeosWPHhsD
Cardinal Gerhard Müller, former head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and currently a cardinal elector who will vote in the upcoming conclave, spoke Thursday on “The World Over with Raymond Arroyo” about the papacy of Pope Francis and the qualities needed by the man who will eventually become Francis’ successor at the close of the conclave that begins May 7.
On the seventh day of the Novendiales Masses for Pope Francis, Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti recalled the extreme sacrifice Catholics from the Eastern Catholic Churches have made to remain faithful to the successor of St. Peter, the pope.
“In the past, Eastern Catholics have agreed to adhere to full communion with the successor of the Apostle Peter, whose body rests in this basilica. And it was in the name of this union that they bore witness, often in blood or persecution, to their faith,” Gugerotti said at a Mass on May 2 in St. Peter’s Basilica.
Eastern Catholics, “in part now reduced, in numbers and in strength but not in faith, from wars and intolerance,” he continued, “remain firmly clinging to a sense of catholicity that does not exclude but rather implies the recognition of their specificity.”
Read more.
The conclave to elect Pope Francis’ successor will begin on May 7. Over 130 cardinal electors will vote in the conclave, the largest group of cardinal electors ever.
It is also arguably the most diverse group of electors ever, geographically speaking.
A closer look at the numbers — taking the estimated number of Catholics in a country and dividing them by the number of cardinal electors — gives some idea of how “represented” that country’s Catholic community will be in the conclave. The smaller the resulting number, the more “representation” those Catholics get in the conclave via the cardinal or cardinals who serve them.
Which country has the most representation, proportionally, at the conclave?
Find out more in this fascinating analysis of the numbers.
The upcoming conclave to elect the successor to Pope Francis will be the largest in the history of the Catholic Church, with 133 cardinal electors expected to gather in the Sistine Chapel on May 7, Vatican officials confirmed this week.
The unprecedented number surpasses all previous papal conclaves, breaking the previous record of 115 electors in the 2005 and 2013 elections. It also marks the first time a conclave will be held with more than 120 voting cardinals — the limit set by St. John Paul II in his 1996 apostolic constitution Universi Dominici Gregis.
Read more.
Vatican firefighters have installed the iconic chimney atop the Sistine Chapel, a key step ahead of the May 7 conclave to elect Pope Francis’s successor. Black smoke = no pope yet; white smoke = a new pope has been chosen. All eyes on the Vatican! #Conclave2025 pic.twitter.com/dSikPOHFYJ
With the conclave just days away, attention turns to the strict protocols governing the secretive process of electing the next pope.
EWTN News Vice President Dr. Matthew Bunson joins “EWTN News Nightly” from Rome to explain how secrecy is maintained during the conclave, whether any of the cardinals will have downtime during this period, how the voting process unfolds, and how many votes are required for a new pontiff to be chosen.
He also reflects on the unique overlap of Italy’s Labor Day and the feast of St. Joseph the Worker:
Not only did Pope Francis value and promote the dignity of labor, he was someone who personally worked extremely hard, finding joy and rest in work itself, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández said at the sixth Novendiales Mass.
“What I want to show, however, is to what extent [Pope Francis] understood that his work was his mission, his everyday work was his response to God’s love, it was an expression of his concern for the good of others,” Fernández said in St. Peter’s Basilica on May 1.
Drawing on the best of the Francis papacy, the next pope needs to be an Evangelii Gaudium pope more than a synodality pope, writes Terence Sweeney in his commentary at the National Catholic Register.
As the Catholic Church continues through a period of interregnum between the reign of popes, Chinese authorities have made moves to assert the Church in China’s autonomy from Rome by unilaterally “electing” two bishops — including in a diocese already led by a Vatican-appointed bishop.
Read more about the controversial moves here.
Members of the College of Cardinals have gathered in Rome in anticipation of the subsequent election of Pope Francis’ successor.
There are currently 252 cardinals, 133 of whom are eligible and expected to vote in the conclave. They range in age from 45 to 99.
But who are they? Read the whole story here.
At a time when some postulate that Europe might soon become irrelevant because of the increasing prominence of the Global South — where the Church is growing fastest — it remains, as its institutional and theological center of gravity, a key player in the conclave outcome.
With currently 53 of the 135 voting cardinals coming from Europe — a third of whom are Italians — their collective priorities and concerns will influence not only the choice of the next pope but also the direction of the Church in a rapidly changing world.
It is becoming clear, however, that the European bloc is no longer unified, writes Solène Tadié in the National Catholic Register.
The qualities of a pope go far beyond merely being a kind of CEO of the Catholic Church.
Inevitably, at a minimum, he should possess a strong faith and humility, be willing to adhere to the Church’s teachings and apostolic tradition, and personify the pope’s ancient title as “servus servorum Dei,” the servant of the servants of God.
But he should also possess other exceptional qualities, according to Edward Pentin at the National Catholic Register.
As we prepare for the start of the conclave on May 7, here are several places to be familiar with.1. Casa Santa MartaSaint John Paul II designated the Domus Sanctae Marthae as the residence of the cardinal electors during conclaves.2. Sistine ChapelIt is the seat of the… pic.twitter.com/PJqZaBBCZQ
Cardinal Gerhard Müller calls for a deeper, faith-driven approach to overcome factionalism as cardinals prepare for the upcoming papal conclave, reports CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner.
The cardinal warns against any “friend and foe thinking” that categorizes people as “for me” or “against me,” calling such division particularly “harmful for the Church, which by its nature is meant to be the sign, the instrument” of communion with God and among people.
Müller, who served as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith from 2012 to 2017, offers a profound perspective on the concept of “periphery” popularized by Pope Francis.
Warning of an ideological contrast of “center versus periphery,” Müller tells EWTN Germany that the world is a sphere where every person stands equidistant from its core — and that the Eucharist, whether celebrated in the Amazon or St. Peter’s Basilica, remains the same sacred rite, uniting believers worldwide in a shared faith.
As the conclave approaches, speculation grows about who will succeed Pope Francis as the next pope.
One potential candidate is Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem. A group of young Christians from Palestine, led by Father Firas Abedrabbo, former personal secretary to Pizzaballa, is in Rome originally for the canonization of Blessed Carlo Acutis but instead found themselves present for the pope’s funeral, advocating for Pizzaballa’s election to the papacy.
EWTN Vatican journalist Valentina Di Donato reports from Rome:
The 2025 Conclave: All the cardinal electors from A to Z. Let's pray for them. pic.twitter.com/evOGuKSmGA
