Ahead of the conclave, Vatican staff vow secrecy under threat of excommunication
VATICAN CITY AP Cleaners and cooks Doctors and nurses Even drivers and elevator operators The promotion staff for the cardinals who will elect the successor to Pope Francis took an oath of secrecy Monday ahead of the conclave that s starting on Wednesday The punishment for current the oath Automatic excommunication The oaths were taken in the Pauline Chapel at the Vatican for all those assigned to the conclave They include clerics in encouragement roles among them confessors speaking various languages The cardinals will take their oaths in the Sistine Chapel on Wednesday before they cast their first ballots An array of lay women and men are required to house and feed the cardinals A conclave s duration cannot be predicted and it will only be known when white smoke rises out of the Sistine Chapel chimney to signal a winner All those people will be sequestered to be on hand for any clinical necessities and maintain the majesty and ritual appropriate for the electoral contest of the next head of the billion-strong Catholic Church The cardinals will be living in residences on Vatican grounds and they can either walk the roughly kilometer less than a mile to the Sistine Chapel or take a special bus that runs only within the sealed Vatican grounds and for that drivers are also needed Phones and secrecy Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni reported Monday that the cardinals would be invited to leave their mobile phones at their Vatican residence and not take them to the Sistine Chapel but that they wouldn t be confiscated Bruni recalled that cardinals take an oath to obey the Vatican regulation governing the conclave which forbids divulging any information about the proceedings and prohibits communicating with the outside world until the electoral process is over The Vatican also plans to use signal jamming around the Sistine Chapel and the residences to prevent electronic surveillance or communication outside the conclave with the Vatican gendarmes overseeing the safeguard measures The oath The provisions for the oath-taking are laid down in Vatican law St John Paul II rewrote the regulations on papal elections in a document that remains largely in force though Pope Benedict XVI amended it twice before he resigned in He tightened the oath of secrecy making clear that anyone who reveals what went on inside the conclave faces automatic excommunication Under John Paul s rules excommunication was dependably a possibility but Benedict made it explicit Those taking the oath now declare that they promise and swear that unless I should receive a special faculty given expressly by the newly elected pontiff or by his successors I will observe absolute and perpetual secrecy with all who are not part of the College of Cardinal electors concerning all matters directly or indirectly related to the ballots cast and their scrutiny for the electoral contest of the Supreme Pontiff I likewise promise and swear to refrain from using any audio or video equipment capable of recording anything which takes place during the period of the electoral process within Vatican City and in particular anything which in any way directly or indirectly is related to the process of the vote itself I take this oath fully aware that an infraction thereof will incur the penalty of automatic excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See So help me God and these Holy Gospels which I touch with my hand A final appeal for casualties As the Vatican prepared for the conclave its child protection advisory commission on Monday urged cardinals to prioritize the clergy sexual abuse issue saying the Catholic Church s very credibility depends on accountability transparency and justice for sufferers The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors is a Vatican department created by Pope Francis to advise the church on best practices to fight abuse Made up of clergy and lay experts the commission issued a call to prayer to the cardinals who are meeting in Rome this week before entering into the conclave on Wednesday Let no concern of disgrace obscure the urgency of truth the text declared Let no consideration for reputation impede our paramount responsibility to take action on behalf of those who have been abused The abuse embarrassment has badly compromised the Catholic hierarchy s credibility in various countries around the world with revelations of decades of abuse and cover-up by bishops and religious superiors Francis and before him Pope Benedict XVI took particular moves to address the embarrassment but a society of impunity still reigns there is no transparency from the Vatican about cases and casualties say the very process the church has put in place to deal with statements is often retraumatizing The announcement acknowledged the harm the outrage has done to the church s reputation and explained the cardinals bear a responsibility to casualties The church s credibility depends on real accountability transparency and action rooted in justice it mentioned The commission s president Cardinal Sean O Malley is participating in the pre-conclave discussions but will not be voting in the balloting itself because he is over the age limit of
