According to Italian state media, the Vatican will cut off all cell phone signals ahead of Wednesday’s highly secretive conclave to choose the next pope. According to Italian news agency ANSA, the Vatican intends to install signal jammers surrounding the Sistine Chapel to prevent electronic monitoring or communication outside the conclave, where 133 cardinals will vote on Pope Francis’s successor and guide the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.
Italian state broadcaster RAI said Monday that phone service would be turned off Wednesday at 3 p.m. local time (9 a.m. ET), one and a half hours before the cardinals are expected to head to the Sistine Chapel to start the papal conclave.
For centuries, the head of the Catholic Church has been chosen in a very private meeting called a “conclave,” which translates to “with key” in Latin and alludes to the time when cardinals were imprisoned until a new pope was chosen. Cardinals select the future pope in a complex procedure that dates back to the Middle Ages.
According to a Vatican spokesperson, the cardinals will have to give up their phones and all other electronic devices beginning on Tuesday and won’t be allowed to get them back until the conclave is over.
Also Read:
In Texas, a Deadly Measles Outbreak Does little to Dispel Vaccine Skepticism