No phone, no news for cardinals during conclave as Pope Francis' successor is picked at Sistine Chapel

On the eve of the conclave to elect the next pope, the world's smallest country, Vatican City, is engulfed in commotion as cardinals and pilgrims descend.

VATICAN CITY — On the eve of the conclave to elect the next pope, the world’s smallest country is engulfed in commotion.

Packs of pilgrims chant and sing as they carry large, wooden crosses on the uneven cobblestones toward St. Peter’s Basilica. Street vendors and polo shirt-wearing tourists haggle over 1 euro fridge magnets bearing the face of the late Pope Francis. Espresso machines hiss, taxi drivers honk and crowds swell under intermittent clouds strafing the Vatican — which this week feels like the center of the universe.

The real action will happen nearby under a hush of near silence and total secrecy.

On Wednesday, 133 cardinal electors from all over the world will gather under the god-breathed frescoes of the Sistine Chapel for the most clandestine of ballots. Barred from leaving and with zero contact with the outside world, they must vote — and vote, and perhaps vote again — until they select the next leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.

https://www.nbcnews.com/world/the-vatican/pope-francis-successor-conclave-catholic-church-rcna204820

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