Conclave: Pope's 'electoral college' has moral values, no exit polls

Published: 2004-11-05

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Non-Americans at the Vatican are often perplexed by the U.S. electoral system, wondering how, for example, a nationwide presidential choice can come down to 130,000 votes in a single state. Sometime in the coming years, the Vatican will host its own unique form of election called a conclave, and the shoe will be on the other foot: Church leaders will be called on to explain one of the oldest and most arcane systems of voting in the world. Papal conclaves are not like the popular votes of democratic countries. The approximately 120 electors are all cardinals, all male and all sworn to secrecy about the proceedings, which take place behind a locked door. When a new pope is finally chosen, the larger church membership of more than 1 billion Catholics often has no idea how many votes he received or who the other strong candidates were. The conclave is not an expression of representative democracy, as Vatican officials are fond of pointing out, but recent popes have made an effort to promote more geographical balance by naming cardinals from Third World countries.

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