Catholic cardinals will convene on 7 Mayto begin voting for a new pope, the Vatican announced Monday, one week after the death of Pope Francis.

The conclave will be held in the Sistine Chapel, where cardinals under the age of 80 — known as the “Princes of the Church” — will gather under Michelangelo’s famed frescoes to elect the next spiritual leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.

The date was set during a meeting of cardinals of all ages on Monday morning, just two days after Francis was laid to rest. The Argentine pontiff died on 21 April at the age of 88.

Following his death, all 252 cardinals were called back to Rome, although only 135 are eligible to vote. Many of the cardinal electors do not know each other personally, but they attended four general congregations last week to become more familiar.

Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti, 83, a former head of the Italian bishops’ conference, said there was a “beautiful, fraternal atmosphere.”
“Of course, there may be some difficulties because the voters have never been so numerous and not everyone knows each other,” he told Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper.

On Monday, the Vatican officially closed the Sistine Chapel to begin preparations for the conclave. The highly secretive election follows a strict set of ceremonial procedures, with four votes held per day — two in the morning and two in the afternoon — until a candidate secures a two-thirds majority.

There is little indication of who the next pope might be, with several names being discussed but no clear favorite.

“I believe that if Francis has been the pope of surprises, this conclave will be too, as it is not at all predictable,” Spanish Cardinal Jose Cobo told El Pais in an interview published Sunday.

Francis was buried on Saturday after a funeral at St. Peter’s Square that drew more than 400,000 people, including royalty, world leaders, and ordinary pilgrims. On Sunday, approximately 70,000 mourners visited his marble tomb at the Santa Maria Maggiore Basilica, where the “pope of the poor” chose to be buried outside the Vatican walls.

Among potential papal candidates, Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin — who served as secretary of state under Francis — is seen by many as a frontrunner. British bookmaker William Hill places him slightly ahead of Filipino Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, the Metropolitan Archbishop emeritus of Manila, with Ghana’s Cardinal Peter Turkson also among the top contenders.

Others in the running include Matteo Zuppi, Archbishop of Bologna; Guinea’s Cardinal Robert Sarah; and Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem.

Though Francis earned global respect for promoting a more compassionate Church, some of his reforms were met with resistance from conservative factions, particularly in the United States and Africa.

Roberto Regoli, a professor of Church history and culture at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, said cardinals would likely seek a unifying figure.
“We are in a period in which Catholicism is experiencing various polarisations, so I don’t imagine it will be a very, very quick conclave,” he said.

Bassetti, who is ineligible to vote due to age, predicted a shorter process: “will not be long.”

Roughly 80 percent of the cardinal electors were appointed by Francis, though that does not guarantee the selection of someone closely aligned with his views. Many of the electors are relatively young and attending their first conclave.

Cardinal Dieudonne Nzapalainga of the Central African Republic said the next pope must transcend geographic and racial divisions.
“The future pope must have a universal heart, love all the continents. We must not look at colour, at origin, but at what is proposed,” he told Italy’s Il Messaggero.
“We need a courageous leader, a bold one, capable of speaking forcefully, of holding the helm of the Church steady even in storms... offering stability in an era of great uncertainty.”

Patrizia Spotti, a 68-year-old Italian visiting Rome for the 2026 Jubilee holy year, expressed hope that the next pope would carry on Francis’ legacy.
“I hope the new pontiff will be a pope like Francis,” she told AFP.
“Churches are empty. And the Church itself has made mistakes, all the scandals with the children,” she said, referring to widespread clerical sex abuse revelations.