The FINANCIAL — Cardinals Zenon Grocholewski, Kazimierz Nycz, Stanislaw Rylko and Stanislaw Dziwisz will make up the electorate of 115 under the age of 80 who will take part in the decision at the Sistine Chapel to chose a successor to Pope Benedict, who abdicated on February 28.
Two stoves have been installed inside the chapel to burn the cardinals' ballots after they are cast and to send up the traditional smoke signal alerting the world that a vote has been taken and whether there's a new pope.
As Polskie Radio said, the cardinals will cast their first vote Tuesday afternoon and will continue the process, four times a day, until one of the contenders gains a two-thirds majority.
No conclave has lasted more than five days in the past century, with Pope Benedict being elected under 24 hours in 2005 after just four rounds of voting, following the death of Pope John Paul II.
The Polish Roman Catholic Church will be hoping the new pope helps to reverse declines in congregations over the last two decades.
According to the Catholic Church Statistical Office, weekly church attendance has dropped in Poland from 53 percent of the population in 1987 to less than 40 percent in 2011, the lowest ever recorded.
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