Spanish
Vatican City. – The opening of the conclave to elect the new pope, this Wednesday, is synonymous with isolation, not only because of the confinement of the cardinals "with a key" in the Sistine Chapel, but also because of the turning off of mobile phones in the Vatican and the oath of silence of the prelates, mandatory under penalty of excommunication.
Italian authorities have deployed a security operation for days, which reached its peak on April 26 for Francis's funeral and has since been modulated according to circumstances, but which is increasing again from today.
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The prefect of Rome, Lamberto Giannini, has explained these days that the funeral model will be repeated in the event of the arrival of thousands of people to St. Peter's when the "fumata" is white and announces the election of the new pontiff.
Fences, Police and Army officers and mounted agents, drones and explosive-detecting dogs – among others – also control access to San Pedro today without impeding it and contribute to that impression of isolation, on a day with clouds that partially hide the sky of Rome.
Regardless of what is happening outside, the cardinals are definitively shutting themselves in today at Casa Santa Marta, their residence during these conclave days, away from any noise that might alter their mission of designating a new pontiff.
Before proceeding to the first vote, this very afternoon, they will take an oath to, among other things, keep "the secret about everything related in any way to the election of the Roman Pontiff and about what happens in the place of the election concerning directly or indirectly the scrutiny".
It is a sealed-lips policy that officials and workers of the Vatican – from health workers to security, cleaning or maintenance staff – have also accepted with another oath in recent days regarding what they are seeing and hearing in relation to the meeting of the 133 cardinals under 80 years of age who will elect the head of the Catholic Church.
These days, everyone linked to the conclave, whether lay or religious, also remain without contact even with their own family members, and revealing any detail would be an infraction punishable by excommunication.
In addition, the Vatican will proceed this Wednesday to deactivate its mobile phone coverage network in its small territory (0.4 square kilometers).
All this to guarantee the "security of the activities for the election of the Supreme Pontiff", to the point that the signal will not return until a new one is elected, according to the Governorate of the Vatican City State.
In an era where even cardinals are on social media – and these days some have uploaded videos and comments prior to their confinement – Vatican personnel will confiscate their phones to leave them isolated from the earthly world.
One more step to ensure that distancing has been that the cameras and sensors that normally show the Sistine Chapel, a central place in the Vatican Museums, which last year received almost seven million visitors, have been taken out of service.
And, in the mid-afternoon, "Extra omnes", everyone out, the doors of the Chapel are closed and the isolation is consummated.
