Papal election guards against high-tech spying

Housekeepers, car drivers and other people with access to cardinals during the conclave took an oath of secrecy yesterday, promising never to reveal the details behind the selection of the next pope.

The ceremony, which took place in the Apostolic Palace, was one of the first formal acts signalling the start of Monday’s conclave.

Another came earlier in the day when workers scaled the roof of the Sistine Chapel and attached the chimney pipe that will spew out puffs of white smoke to announce to the world that a new pope has been elected.

Secrecy has long been a hallmark of conclaves, but the threat of leaks and spying seemed greater than ever in an age of high-tech listening devices, some 6,000 accredited journalists prowling Vatican City and seemingly intractable global interest in the decisions of 115 red-hatted ”princes of the church.”

In addition, for the first time ever, cardinals will be allowed to move about Vatican City freely once the voting starts, though they are forbidden to talk to anyone who hasn’t been sworn to secrecy.

Already, though, leaks from the secret pre-conclave meetings were abounding in the Italian media, with newspapers reporting on the daily jockeying of factions pushing their candidates.

Early in the week saw Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany a front-runner with nearly half of the votes. By Friday, Cardinal Angelo Sodano and Chilean Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz Ossa were gaining some momentum, according to newspaper accounts.

The Rev Andrew Greeley, a prominent Catholic author, said such leaks were common in the run-up to the conclave – though they are expected to stop once the master of liturgical ceremonies cries “Extra omnes,” Latin for ”all out,” and only the cardinals are left in the Sistine Chapel to vote.

“It is like the previous conclaves, about this time before they go into the conclave, the Italians begin to leak things to the Italian media and you get all kinds of wild predictions,” he said.

The preparations came as the College of Cardinals, which is running the Church in the absence of a pope, held its next-to-last meeting.