Workers attach chimney pipe to Sistine Chapel

Workers scaled the roof of the Sistine Chapel today and attached the chimney pipe from which white smoke will billow to alert the world that a new pope has been elected, as the Vatican made final preparations for Monday’s conclave.

Attached by a safety clip and cable, a worker shimmied down the tiled roof and uncapped a small top that had covered the chimney. He replaced it with a tall, thin pipe fed to him by another man standing in an opening in the chapel’s sloped roof.

Starting on Monday afternoon, the cardinals will send smoke signals from the burned ballot papers of the vote to indicate whether they have found a successor to Pope John Paul II. Black smoke means no pope has been elected; white smoke signals a new pope.

The preparations for the balloting came as the College of Cardinals, who are running the Church in the absence of a pope, held their penultimate meeting ahead of Monday’s conclave.

Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said the 138 cardinals present spent the meeting discussing the problems of the church in the world. Cardinals who headed Vatican congregations and councils also discussed problems in their offices, he said.

Later today, housekeepers, bus drivers, technicians and other people who will have access to the cardinals during the conclave are to take their oath of secrecy. The list includes elevator operators who will ferry the cardinals, chefs who will cook for them, doctors who will care for them if they fall ill and priests who will hear their confessions.

The penalty for violating the oath is severe: excommunication.