VATICAN: Conclave to Elect New Pope to Begin on May 7th with 18 Cardinals from Africa

Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA

The Vatican announced that the conclave to elect the successor of Pope Francis is set to commence on Wednesday, May 7, 2025. According to the Vatican officials, there are 135 Cardinal-electors from across the world eligible to vote, with 18 cardinals from Africa, and four (4) of whom are from the Association of Member Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa (AMECEA). 37 other Cardinals will be from America, 23 from Asia, 4 from Oceania, and the majority are 53, from Europe.

In a message shared with the media Thursday, April 28, after the fifth General Congregation of Cardinals, which had more than 180 participants, of whom just over a hundred were electors, the conclave “will open on the morning of May 7, with the Holy Mass pro eligendo Romano Pontifice (for the election of the Roman Pontiff) in St. Peter’s Basilica. Thereafter after in the afternoon, the cardinals will make their entrance into the Sistine Chapel and begin the voting operations.”

During the fifth General Congregation of Cardinals, the interventions “addressed issues of particular relevance for the future of the Church: the relationship with the contemporary world, and some of the challenges that were highlighted included evangelization, the relationship with other faiths, and the issue of abuse.”

Additionally, there were conversations on the qualities that the new Pontiff must possess to respond effectively to the contemporary challenges.

Even though the 9-day Novemdiales Novena for Pope Francis will end on May 4^th, and the Cardinals would begin the conclave afterwards, the date to commence the voting for the new Pope has been delayed for a few days for the Cardinals to familiarize themselves, and also to give time for the arrival of those who are not yet in Rome.

In the Apostolic letter Normas Nonnullas issued Motu Proprio by Pope Benedict XVI before his resignation in February 2013, he highlighted the procedures on the duration to be taken before the process of electing a new Pope begins.

“From the moment when the Apostolic See is lawfully vacant, fifteen full days must elapse before the Conclave begins, in order to await those who are absent; nonetheless, the College of Cardinals is granted the faculty to move forward the start of the Conclave if it is clear that all the Cardinal electors are present,” reads part of the letter which continues, “They can also defer, for serious reasons, the beginning of the election for a few days more. But when a maximum of twenty days has elapsed from the beginning of the vacancy of the See, all the Cardinal electors present are obliged to proceed to the election.”

Besides, the late Pope Benedict XVI noted in his letter that “From the time established for the beginning of the electoral process until the public announcement that the election of the Supreme Pontiff has taken place, or in any case until the new Pope so disposes, the rooms of the Domus Sanctae Marthae, (a building adjacent to St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City), and in particular the Sistine Chapel and the areas reserved for liturgical celebrations are to be closed to unauthorized persons, by the authority of the Cardinal Camerlengo and with the outside assistance of the Vice Camerlengo and of the Substitute of the Secretariat of State.”

Find below the list of Cardinal-electors from across the world eligible to vote:

AFRICA 18 cardinals from 17 countries.

AMBONGO BESUNGU Fridolin, 24.01.1960, Repubblica Democratica del Congo

BESSI DOGBO Ignace, 17.08.1961, Costa d’Avorio

BRISLIN Stephen, 24.09.1956, Sudafrica

FURTADO GOMES Arlindo, 15.11.1949, Capo Verde

KAMBANDA Antoine, 10.11.1958, Ruanda

KUTWA Jean-Pierre, 22.12.1945, Costa d’Avorio

LÓPEZ ROMERO Cristóbal, 19.05.1952, Marocco

MULLA Stephen Ameyu Martin, 10.01.1964, South Sudan (AMECEA)

NJUE John, 01.01.1946, Kenya (AMECEA)

NZAPALAINGA Dieudonné, 14.03.1967, Repubblica Centrafricana