Vatican excludes a phone signal during a conclave

The Vatican said that « from Wednesday, May 7th at 3 pm, all telecommunication signals will be transmitted for mobile phones in the Vatican State Territory … to be deactivated. »

The signal will be re -included after the Pope’s selection, the statement said.

The signal break will not refer to St. Peter’s Square, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni told reporters.

Thousands of believers are expected in the Square in front of St. Peter’s Basilik in anticipation of the publication of Pope Francis, who died on April 21.

A total of 133 Cardinals under the age of 80, who will choose a new Pope, arrived at Rome on a conclave that starts on Wednesday, Vatican announced earlier on Monday.

The cardinals will gather at Sistine Chapel on Wednesday at 4:30 pm and start the vote that will last until one of them gets a two -thirds majority and becomes a new leader of 1.4 billion Catholics in the world, writes France Presse.

The Vatican said the cardinals would have to hand over their phones during their stay.

The highest church officials will retreat to the Sistine Chapel, where they will not be allowed to contact the outside world.

The two -thirds majority is needed to choose Francis’s successor in a procedure that could take days or even weeks.

The world learns that the Pope has been chosen when the official burns the ballots with special chemicals and the white smoke comes out of the chapel chimney. Other chemicals are used to form black smoke that is a unresolved vote outcome.

The high -ranking cardinal finally goes out to the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica to publish « Habemus Papam » (we have a pope).

The new Pope then appears on the balcony and blesses the crowd in the square in front of the basilica.