How is the pope elected?
Hi KJ. I hope I am not too late for you. Anyway what happens is this. When the pope dies a new Pope is elected by the College of Cardinals meeting in Conclave (secret meeting in the Sistine Chapel.) Up to 1975, all cardinals no matter what their age could vote. Then in that same year, Pope Paul V1, introduced a new rule which forbid Cardinals 80 years of age and over from voting. He also made provision to prevent the Sistine Chapel from being bugged. This was known as the Apostolic Constitution Romano Pontifico Eligendo. t was according to these rules that Albano Luciano, Patriarch of Venice, was elected Pope John Paul I and that a little over a month later, Karol Wojtyla, Cardinal Archbishop of Krakow, was elected Pope John Paul II. Pope John Paul II himself promulgated a whole new set of rules in 1996 in the Apostolic Constitution Universi Dominici Gregis. He he departed radically from the traditional structure. But he made some significant changes: * if no cardinal has been elected
