Archaic ritual for death of a Pope

The death of a Pope and the election of another is replete with engagingly archaic ritual.

When the Pope dies the Cardinal Camerlengo, the head of the Sacred College of Cardinals, must verify the death - traditionally by calling the Pontiff by his baptismal name three times without response - then authorise a death certificate. The death is made public, the Pope's private apartments in the apostolic palace are closed, the papal seal and ring of the Fisherman inscribed with his papal name are broken and preparations for the novemdieles (nine days of mourning) are made. During this time cardinals from around the world make their way to the Vatican City for the conclave.

Cardinals will be sequestered in the Casa Santa Marta, new hotel facilities near the apostolic palace - the building on the right as you look at St Peter's - which has access to the Sistine Chapel, where the balloting takes place beneath Michelangelo's awe-inspiring ceiling. The cardinals will be sequestered from the outside world, and the world cut off from them. No cellphones, windows are whited out in the access hallways, no communications in or out. Cardinals swear an oath of secrecy with immediate excommunication for anyone breaching it, and they are literally locked away within the papal annex.

New Zealand's Cardinal Tom Williams says the custom is two votes in the morning and another two in the afternoon. Cardinals have a ballot paper on which is written "eligo in suumum pontificem ... " ("I elect as supreme Pontiff ... "). They fill in the name of their choice, fold their paper and, one by one, make their way to an altar, holding their papers high to show they have voted.

The papers are placed in a chalice, the votes counted and the nominated names called out and tallied. The ballot papers are pierced with a needle, threaded together and burned. If no Pope has been elected the thread of papers is burned on wet straw (or these days with some chemical additive) to give off black smoke to a waiting world, otherwise dry straw is used to create the white smoke of affirmation.

When white smoke rises the dean of the cardinals formally announces the new Pope from the balcony of the Vatican by shouting "habemus papam!" (We have a pope!) and the new Pontiff - after meditation in the evocatively named Room of Tears near the Sistine Chapel - appears to greet and bless the waiting world.

And then the media hits hyperdrive.