Why Vatican is Deactivating Mobile Phone Signals Ahead of New Pope Election

The Vatican, the world headquarters of the Catholic Church, has announced that on Wednesday all cell phone signals for cardinals who will participate in the process of electing a new pope will be disabled.

The cardinals will have to give up their phones and all electronic devices starting Tuesday and will only get their devices back once the conclave has ended, a Vatican spokesman said.

According to Italian news agency ANSA, the Vatican also plans to use signal jammers around the Sistine Chapel to prevent electronic surveillance or communication outside the conclave that will see 133 cardinals vote on who will succeed Pope Francis and lead the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.

Phone signal will be cut off at 3 p.m. local time on Wednesday, an hour and a half before the cardinals are scheduled to proceed to the Sistine Chapel to begin the papal conclave, Italian state broadcaster RAI reported on Monday.

All 133 cardinals who will vote to elect Francis’ successor have already arrived in Rome, the Vatican confirmed on Monday.

It is common practice for cardinals participating in the process of electing a new pope to do so inside the Sistine Chapel without any means of enabling external communication by electronic means.

The Sistine Chapel is fitted with a huge Chimney which will transmit messages to the public waiting outside using smoke signals

If the smoke coming out of the Sistine Chapel is black, it is a sign that the cardinals have not agreed on a new pope and the process continues for hours, or even days, until they elect a new pope and send a message outside by lighting white smoke.

For centuries, the leader of the Catholic Church has been chosen in a highly secretive gathering known as “conclave,” meaning “with key” in Latin – a nod to how cardinals used to be locked in until a new pope was selected.

Cardinals tasked with picking the next pontiff follow an elaborate process with roots in the Middle Ages.

The cardinals will all be shut in the Sistine Chapel and locked away from the outside world from Wednesday. All of the cardinals taking part in the conclave will be in complete isolation and will take a vow to observe “absolute and perpetual secrecy”.

However, signal deactivation will not affect St Peter’s Square, where the public often gathers, according to the spokesman.

Pope Francis died on Easter Monday, and his Requiem Mass was celebrated on 26 April, five days after his death, and he was buried at Santa Maria Maggiore.

The papal conclave that will determine Francis's successor is expected to convene on 7 May.