Following the death of Pope Francis at age 88 on April 21, the office of the pontiff will remain vacant until a successor is chosen and elected, the Christian Post website reports today (April 24, 2025).
Francis served for 12 years, longer than predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, but less than half of the 26 years of t he late Pope St. John Paul II.
Matthew Schmalz, a professor of religious studies at the Roman Catholic Church--affiliated Holy Cross College in Worcester, Mass. , is a noted expert on Catholicism and the papacy.
In an interview with the Christian Post, Schmalz explained the process for electing a new pope and shared his thoughts about potential successors to Francis and rthe future of the Catholic Church.
"A pope is elected in a conclave, which literally means a room that can be locked," Schmalz explained. "And so, they're locked away in the Sistine Chapel, and a pope, in order to be elected, needs a two--thirds majority of the eligible voting members of the College of Cardinals."
After voting that many of the Cardinals appointed by Pope Francis "come from the margins of the Catholic world," he stressed how this means "many of the cardinals don't actually know each other that well before the conclave begins."
While Schmalz believes there won't be " a deadlocked conclave that would last for days and days," he anticipates that "it will be longer than most recent conclaves because many of the cardinals don't know each other that well."
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