Everybody out," the "ceremoniere" will say at the beginning of the conclave. Out will be the pools and cabals, the Vaticanists and opinion-makers. The Spirit will enter, if we ask for it. Behind the apparent political game we must see the dove of the Holy Spirit fluttering. "How can they take these old priests - many of them with heroic biographies and persecuted for their faith - as if they were characters in any parliament, or members of the committee administration of any multinational?", Messori asked himself the other day.

The conclave is a spiritual event, a time of prayer and a decision of conscience. One billion two hundred million Catholics (and those to come) are watching. Everything that happens in the conclave is steeped in liturgy, Cardinal Rouco recalled: "The electoral act is also a liturgical act; we are dressed in the choral habit; in the Sistine Chapel there is no one, there are only the cardinals and our Lord".

One of the scrutineers calls the cardinals.... They go out into the aisle of the Sistine Chapel with the ballot, they take the oath before Jesus Christ, "who will judge me". The cardinals vote for who each one believes is the most Pass to be the shepherd of the universal Church. The ballot is then placed on a plate - under the gaze of the judge in Michelangelo's "Last Judgment" - and one of the scrutineers places the ballot in the ballot box designed by Bonanotte.

When the voting is finished, the ballots are scrutinized, and three other cardinals review the ballots. They are placed in an urn to be burned, and the possible notes are also burned. Everything takes place in an atmosphere of recollection. "The voting begins with prayer and ends with prayer, the cardinal concluded. Everything is in silence. Nothing is said there, from subject: "This cardinal is fantastic". Not a syllable. Silence and prayer. That is why they are all outside, and the cardinals, with God. Let us pray that it really is so.