Secret history of the conclaves: The internal battles of the last 10 papal elections

07 Mai 2025, 12:15

What happens in a conclave is not only secret — though more or less everything eventually becomes known — but also deeply mysterious. Votes shift and fluctuate until they finally converge on a single name, which is often not among the initial favorites. Alongside the influence of the Holy Spirit, far more earthly factors come into play — patterns that tend to repeat themselves.