There is a famous quote attributed to then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in 1997, in comments to a Bavarian television station. The future Pope Benedict XVI said the Holy Spirit acted like a good educator in a conclave, allowing cardinals to freely choose a pope without dictating the precise candidate.

Cardinals who will take part in the secret conclave to elect a new Catholic pope began checking into two Vatican hotels on Tuesday, where they will be barred from contact with the outside world as they decide who should succeed Pope Francis.

With all the pomp, drama and solemnity that the Catholic Church can muster, 133 Catholic cardinals are beginning the secretive, centuries-old ritual to elect a new pope, opening the most geographicall

Clerics, cardinals and Vatican staff have all taken an oath of secrecy before the college of cardinals meets in the Sistine Chapel to choose a successor for Pope Francis to lead the Catholic Church.

The same goes for every person inside the Vatican during the conclave: from the two doctors on hand for any emergency, to the dining-room staff who feed the cardinals. All vow to observe "absolute and perpetual secrecy".