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Page history

Conclave is a former featured article. Please see the links under Article milestones below for its original nomination page (for older articles, check the nomination archive) and why it was removed.

This article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page as Today's featured article on August 20, 2004.

Article milestones
Date	Process	Result
July 19, 2004	Featured article candidate	Promoted
August 13, 2006	Featured article review	Demoted
August 29, 2006	Good article nominee	Listed
June 10, 2009	Good article reassessment	Kept
December 24, 2017	Peer review	Reviewed
September 9, 2023	Good article reassessment	Delisted
Current status: Former featured article

This article has been viewed enough times in a single week to appear in the Top 25 Report. The week in which this happened:

May 4 to 10, 2025

This article has been mentioned by a media organization:

Reid Kanaley (April 25, 2005). "Religion on the Internet". Philadelphia Inquirer.

On 1 June 2025, it was proposed that this article be moved from Papal conclave to Conclave. The result of the discussion was moved.

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This page has archives. Sections older than 180 days may be automatically archived by when more than 6 sections are present.

Oath speeding up the election?

This bit had me scratching my head:

"Gregory XV added the additional oath, taken when each cardinal casts his ballot, to prevent cardinals wasting time in casting "courtesy votes" and instead narrowing the number of realistic candidates for the papal throne to perhaps only two or three. Speed in electing a pope was important, and that meant using an oath so as to get the cardinals down to the serious business of electing a new pope and narrowing the number of potentially electable candidates."

How, exactly, does the additional oath do these things? How does it speed things up and narrow down the number of candidates? Snowgrouse (talk) 18:42, 23 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Cardinals would often vote for a close friend and not consider the most realistic candidates until at least several ballots had been taken. Taking an oath is always serious for people of faith. The oath says that one is voting for the candidate that an elector truly considered worthy of election. 71.251.153.92 (talk) 22:36, 19 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

GA Reassessment

Papal conclave

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Article (edit | visual edit | history) · Article talk (edit | history) · Watch • Watch article reassessment page • Most recent review

Result: Significant violations of criterion 2b and minor violations of criterion 3b. Delisted. ~~ AirshipJungleman29 (talk) 11:47, 9 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Many unreferenced paragraphs and also many half-referenced paragraphs, especially in the second half of the article. There is also one citation needed tags. Those are violations of criterion 2b.

A few paragraphs are very long and should be split in two. Some of the descriptions of the voting process go very much into detail about the possible and hypothetical steps that can or should be taken in different scenarios. This could be a violation of criterion 3b.

The article received a GAR 14 years ago. It also received a peer review 6 years ago where concerns about the sourcing were discussed. Phlsph7 (talk) 11:28, 25 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Who presides?

See https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_constitutions/documents/hf_jp-ii_apc_22021996_universi-dominici-gregis.html paragraph 9 - "If one or both of [the Dean of the College and the Subdean], in accordance with No. 33 of this Constitution, no longer enjoy the right of electing the Pope [i.e. they are aged over 80] the assembly of the Cardinal electors will be presided over by the senior Cardinal elector, according to the customary order of precedence." So: -

1. 2013 papal conclave - Dean Angelo Sodano and Sub-dean Roger Etchegaray were aged over 80 and so, as stated in the article, "Giovanni Battista Re from Italy, the most senior Cardinal-Bishop participating, presided over the conclave." I.e. Camerlengo and outgoing Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone did not.

2. 2005 papal conclave - Dean Joseph Ratzinger presided - over his own election, as it turned out. I.e. Camerlengo Eduardo Martínez Somalo did not. Neither did Angelo Sodano - as stated in his article, his "position as Secretary of State expired upon the death of John Paul II."

3. & 4. October 1978 papal conclave and August 1978 papal conclave- Dean Carlo Confalonieri and Sub-dean Paolo Marella were aged over 80 and so, as stated in his article, Jean-Marie Villot "presided at [both the August and October conclaves of 1978] because he was the senior cardinal bishop in attendance". He happened to be Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church and outgoing Secretary of State.

5. 1963 papal conclave and all previous conclaves - the age limit did not apply.

For completeness, as of now, Dean Giovanni Battista Re and Leonardo Sandri are aged over 80 and Pietro Parolin is the senior Cardinal elector and would preside over a conclave if one were to take place now. He happens to be Secretary of State. Camerlengo Kevin Farrell would not preside.

Would it be worth adding a line in the infobox for each of the last 4 conclaves, stating who presided? Alekksandr (talk) 22:04, 1 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Non-neutral language

Is the second paragraph (a careful historical examination...) a quote or something? What historical examination? why is this here? 2ndDerivative (talk) 10:36, 22 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, good question. I removed it. Eddie891 ^Talk _Work 10:46, 22 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Spiritual isolation

Off-topic conversation

Although it is difficult to prove, it is worth noting that, at the level of cardinals, many – if not all – have the ability to see at a distance, read minds and communicate with their peers through telepathy.

This applies to any Satanist Freemason of the highest degree as well as to any holy servant of Christ/the Church/St. Michael the Archangel.

Spiritual isolation cannot be achieved through technology, as mental communication operates on a non-local level.

In any case, the current report mentions the shutdown of mobile phone networks and the use of jammers, as on en wiki. And perhaps it is right that it should remain so. 82.54.26.132 (talk) 16:21, 9 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Collapsing Off-topic conversation. This is WP:NOTAFORUM to broadly discuss one's beliefs about cardinals. It's a page for improving this article's content. The Savage Norwegian 17:50, 9 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Secrecy of Conclave

There is no mention that cardinals have to maintain secrecy of a past conclave unless the successor permits. ^[1] 207.96.54.137 (talk) 13:48, 11 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

References

^ https://www.ncregister.com/commentaries/pope-francis-and-conclave-secrecy-the-successor?amp

Requested move 1 June 2025

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: moved. (closed by non-admin page mover) Jeffrey34555 (talk) 01:08, 8 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Papal conclave → Conclave – The current name seems verbose. The English word conclave nearly exclusively refers to the papal conclave, and so unsurprisingly Conclave already redirects to Papal conclave. Surtsicna (talk) 11:38, 1 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Support - Sole usage for papal elections means that Conclave may as well be the page.
Support as there is no other article, or likely article, with this title and it is otherwise a dictionary word. Even dictionaries note it is heavily associated with the papal conclave.[1][2][3] --MYCETEAE 🍄‍🟫—talk 03:08, 4 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Support per nom. KnowDeath (talk) 01:26, 5 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Support Rename and switch the direction of redirect (instead of Conclave → Papal conclave, it should be Papal conclave → Conclave instead). RyanW1995 (talk) 05:45, 5 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

[1] ttps://www.ncregister.com/commentaries/pope-francis-and-conclave-secrecy-the-successor?amp

[1]