Creation, Last Judgment, stoves: Workers ready Sistine Chapel for conclave

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Colosseum, the Trevi Fountain and the Sistine Chapel usually top the “must see” list of visitors to Rome and the Vatican.

But as 133 of the world’s cardinals prepared to enter the conclave May 7 to elect the new pope, the Sistine Chapel was closed to visitors April 28.

In preparation for the conclave, workers placed a protective covering over the marble mosaic floors and started carrying in pipes, couplers and sheets of subflooring.

The chapel is the highlight of most tours of the Vatican Museums and close to 7 million people visit each year, especially to see the ceiling Michelangelo painted between 1508 and 1512 and the massive wall fresco of the Last Judgment he painted between 1535 and 1541.

As documented by the Vatican Media video team beginning April 28, the din of tourists, constantly reminded that it is a chapel and they must whisper, was replaced with the sounds of hammering and sawing, the ping of metal couplings hitting metal couplings and the thud of the subfloor being laid.

The new floors and a few ramps, set on top of mini-scaffolding, will eliminate most steps and make the chapel more accessible for the cardinals, whose average age is over 70. Rows of tables and chairs will be added along the north and south walls so that the cardinals face each other. The tables closest to the walls will be raised slightly so that the cardinals in the back have a clear view.

While photographers, and tourists with a keen eye, watched from St. Peter’s Square as Vatican firefighters installed a chimney on the chapel roof May 2, Vatican Media photographers documented what was happening inside.

Two stoves, connected by a copper pipe, were installed: one to burn ballots and the other to burn chemicals to create either dark black or bright white smoke to let the public know if a pope was elected or not.

Before the conclave that elected Pope Benedict XVI in 2005, the ballots were burned with wet or dry straw, which produced the right color, but never really created enough smoke to offer a clear signal.

Maintaining secrecy is part of the cardinals’ oath, so technicians will sweep the chapel for electronic surveillance or recording devices before the conclave.

Before the 2013 conclave that elected Pope Francis, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, then-Vatican spokesman, told reporters that jamming devices are used to disable cellphone signals, but that they are not installed under the false flooring as often is reported.

In 2003, two years before his death, St. John Paul II reflected on his experiences in the Sistine Chapel in a series of poems “Roman Triptych.”

He wrote about the two conclaves of 1978 — the first that elected Pope John Paul I and then the conclave that elected him.

“It is here, at the feet of this marvelous Sistine profusion of color that the Cardinals gather — a community responsible for the legacy of the keys of the Kingdom,” St. John Paul wrote. “They come right here. And once more Michelangelo wraps them in his vision.”

That vision, he wrote, begins with the “creating hand” of God giving life to Adam and ends with the Last Judgment. But it also includes Jesus telling St. Peter in Matthew 16:19: “I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

“It is necessary that during the Conclave, Michelangelo teach them,” the late pope wrote. “Do not forget: ‘Omnia nuda et aperta sunt ante oculos Eius’ (‘All things are laid bare and open before his eyes’). You who see all — point to him! He will point him out.”

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