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The doors of the Sistine Chapel were sealed off today (Wednesday, May 7 in the Vatican) and the 133 electors and the Vatican staff have been sworn into secrecy after a Eucharistic mass. Voting begins Wednesday for the successor of Pope Francis I, who died Easter Monday.
Red drapes now adorn the main balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, where the new pope, if elected today, will be introduced to the whole world.
CNN’s Christopher Lamb wrote on Tuesday that even with the electors sealed off from the world, the 133 prelates were provided materials prior to the conclave. Of course, the Holy Masses that preceded and held on conclave day afforded them the chance to invoke the guidance of the Holy Spirit in their selection process.
“The electors are allowed to take in written materials and, in the days leading up to the conclave, have been offered a book on their fellow cardinals – entitled The College of Cardinals Report– that offers profiles of around 40 papal candidates, including a breakdown on where they stand on topics such as same-sex blessings, ordaining female deacons and the church’s teaching on contraception.”
KNOWING EACH ONE BETTER
The College of Cardinals report is available for free online but has also been produced as a large format book. One retired cardinal, not eligible to participate in the conclave, told CNN he had received a hard copy.
The book has been led by two Catholic journalists– Edward Pentin from Britain and Diane Montagna from the US – both of whose work appears on traditionalist and conservative Catholic news sites. Montagna has been handing the book to cardinals entering and leaving the pre-conclave meetings, Reuters reported.
The creators of the report say they produced the resource to help cardinals get to “know one another better” and was compiled by an “international and independent team of Catholic journalists and researchers.” The cardinals who come from 71 countries, many of them appointed by Francis over the last decade, don’t know each other well and have been wearing name badges during their meetings.
Pope John Paul II, in his rules on electing popes, prohibited, on pain of excommunication, “all possible forms of interference, opposition” from political authorities, including “any individual or group” who “might attempt to exercise influence on the election of the Pope.” ‘
INFLUENCING CONCLAVE
Asked by CNN if the cardinals could take the report in with them to the conclave, a Vatican spokesman said: “What they take in is up to them.”
Two church lawyers told CNN that the report is far from impartial and is an attempt to influence the conclave in an anti-Francis direction. For one, it describes Cardinal Mario Grech, of Malta who has been tasked with overseeing a major reform process in the Roman Catholic Church, as “controversial,” while heaping praise on US Cardinal Raymond Burke, Francis’ prominent critic.
The report was compiled in association with Sophia Institute Press (SIP), a traditionalist-leaning publishing house based in New Hampshire, and Cardinalis, a magazine based in Versailles, France. SIP publishes the radically anti-Francis “Crisis Magazine” and in 2019 published the book “Infiltration,” which claims that in the 19th century, a group of “Modernists and Marxists” hatched a plan to “subvert the Catholic Church from within.” Meanwhile, Cardinalis regularly features articles on prominent conservative cardinals.
Still, “The College of Cardinals Report” website tries to deflect accusations of bias, saying, “Our approach is fact-based and we strive to be impartial, offering as accurate a picture as possible of the sort of man who might one day fill the shoes of the Fisherman.”
HISTORICAL PRECEDENT
The authors claimed there is historical precedent for their initiative, pointing to times when “diplomats and other trusted scribes would compile more in-depth and reliable biographies of the cardinals and distribute them to interested parties.”
Pentin told CNN that the report “was conceived and created as a service to the members of the Sacred College to help them get to know one another in view of the next conclave and beyond. Naturally, we have sought to make the site and accompanying booklet accessible to as many cardinals as possible.”
Canon lawyer and Washington-based Catholic author Dawn Eden Goldstein is skeptical, saying “even if they were pushing for a cardinal in the mold of Francis, it is still banned according to the law of the church,” Goldstein told CNN.
CONCLAVE’S SECRECY
Pope John Paul II, in his rules on electing popes, prohibited, on pain of excommunication, “all possible forms of interference, opposition” from political authorities, including “any individual or group” who “might attempt to exercise influence on the election of the Pope.”
The idea behind the conclave’s secrecy is to prevent a repeat of the historical outside influence of the European monarchs’ veto power in a papal election, the last of which was in 1903.
But the 2025 conclave has seen various kinds of attempts to influence it. Clerical sexual abuse survivors have set up a database to vet cardinals’ records on handling the issue, while social media has been full of controversial content – from AI-generated videos of cardinals partying in the Sistine Chapel to US President Donald Trump releasing an AI imaGe of himself as a pope.
Well-funded conservative Catholic groups are among the would-be influencers.
Sophia Institute Press publishes books in partnership with The Eternal Word Network (EWTN), the largest global religious broadcaster had provided a platform to Francis’ critics.
The Napa Institute, a conservative Catholic group, has been present in Rome in the run-up to the conclave, as has the Papal Foundation, a group of Catholic philanthropists. “This room could raise a billion to help the church. So long as we have the right pope,” an anonymous Papal Foundation backer told the Times of London, CNN said.
RED HAT REPORT
Kurt Martens, a canon law professor of the Catholic University of America, said church legislation seeks to “protect the cardinals against all kinds of outside influencing and interference.” He pointed to the “Red Hat Report,” a US group that in 2018 sought over $1 million to compile dossiers on candidates to prevent a repeat of the conclave that elected Francis.
Martens said initiatives such as the cardinals’ report and the Red Hat Report were meant to give objective but colored information in order to influence the outcome of the conclave.” He added: “Per the rules of St. John Paul II, that is absolutely forbidden.”
But cardinals are not that easily influenced. Cardinal Oswald Gracias, the retired archbishop of Bombay, told CNN he is warning fellow cardinals about “fake news” on social media. He said he’d received the book on the cardinals but hadn’t gone through it. “It’s a well-produced volume, but I hope it’s accurate,” he added.