What the Sistine chapel says to the cardinals

The Sistine Chapel awaits the arrival of cardinal electors to choose the next pope

Long tables at the Sistine Chapel await the arrival of cardinals for the conclave to elect the next pope, Tuesday, May 6, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media CNA Staff, May 6, 2025 / 12:58 pm (CNA). The Vatican on Tuesday released photos of the Sisti... [...]

What the Sistine chapel says to the cardinals

In a matter of hours, all eyes will be on the Sistine chapel as the College of Cardinals gathers to elect a new pope.For most tourists and many novelists, the paintings in the Sistine chapel merely serve as an ornamental backdrop to the politicking and intrigues of the conclave.Yet every brushstroke is charged with meaning.St John Paul II, who oversaw the cleaning of the frescos during his twenty-six-year pontificate, considered the space so sac…

This time it will not be enough to lock up the cardinals in the Sistine Chapel. Nor will it be enough with the oath in the Chapel...

The Vatican technicians have ensured what winters will probably become the most beautiful in the world, ensuring that what happens in the Sixteen Chapel remains in the Sixteen Chapel. So, Michelangelo, meet James Bond! After breakfast, 133 cardinals under 80 years of age will enter the freshly decorated chapel decorated by the Renaissance master to participate in a secret conclusion that will determine who will be the next Catholic pope, reports…

The 133 cardinals who will elect the new pope will be rested from tomorrow in the Sistine Chapel, before Michelangelo's Africans on the Final Court, where everything is ready, according to this Wednesday (6) the director of the Vatican Museum, Barbara Jatta. In conversation with the press, Jatta made a historic and artistic tour by Capela Sistina and showed how she and some of the adjacent rooms, which have been closed since 28 April to prepare …

The Sistine Chapel is ready for the election of the 267th Vicar of Christ on Earth. The day before the conclave, the discussions of the cardinals focus on the main qualities that the new pope should have. On May 6, 173 cardinals, including 130 cardinal electors, took part in the twelfth General Congregation.