What are the church’s rites for the death of a pope?

Pope Francis will be laid to rest (Rafiq Maqbool/AP)

The death of a pope starts a centuries-old ritual involving sacred oaths by the cardinals electing a successor, the piercing of ballots with a needle and thread after they’re counted, and then burning them to produce either the white or black smoke to signal if there’s a new leader for the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics.

But before the cardinals convene in the Sistine Chapel for the conclave to elect a new pope, the Church enters a period called “sede vacante” or “the vacant See”.