Vatican Makes Last Arrangements for Papal Conclave to Choose Next Pope

The Vatican was busy with last-minute arrangements on Tuesday to get ready for the conclave to elect the next pope.

Transcript

00:00The Vatican is busy with last-minute arrangements to get ready for the conclave to elect the next pope,

00:05which starts tomorrow, Wednesday afternoon.

00:09This morning, the cardinals met for the last time for one of their congregations to discuss,

00:14it was the 12th of those such meetings, to discuss the problems facing the 1.4 billion strong Catholic Church.

00:21Over the course of these meetings, there have been over 200 speeches by cardinals,

00:25and it's been a good chance for them to get to know each other as they search for the ideal candidate for the next pope.

00:33At the end of the meeting today, a Vatican employee came and destroyed the Fisherman's Ring.

00:38The Fisherman's Ring is something that has been a tradition going back centuries for popes.

00:42The popes wear the Fisherman's Ring, and once, centuries ago, they used it to seal papal documents

00:48by sticking it in red wax and then putting it at the end of a document.

00:52Today, this afternoon, the cardinals will be able to go into the Santa Marta residence inside the Vatican walls for the first time.

01:01They will be staying there throughout the conclave, and the Vatican has set up a jamming system

01:06so they will not have access to Internet or cell phones, so that the conclave will be conducted in complete secrecy.

01:13The only way we will know of the election of a pope is when we see white smoke coming out of the chimney

01:20on top of the Sistine Chapel behind me.