The Vatican may keep the Sistine Chapel under tight security, but out in the streets, piazzas, and even trattorias, the speculation runs wild and everyone is certain they know who’s in pole position.

When the conclave begins May 7, there will be 117 cardinals who will not be allowed into the Sistine Chapel to take part in the voting process that chooses the next pope.

Former President Joe Biden mourned the passing of Pope Francis in an opinion piece for USA Today published April 28, calling for people to honor the late pontiff by “making his legacy a living legacy. A living faith. A faith of caring and compassion — and mercy.”

The Catholic Church and all of humanity want guidance and support in a world filled with toil, doubts and contradictions, said Cardinal Baldassare Reina, papal vicar of Rome.

The world’s cardinals under the age of 80 will gather to elect the successor of Pope Francis, who died April 21 from a stroke and heart failure. The conclave is scheduled to begin May 7.

Ambrogio Piazzoni, then-vice prefect of the Vatican Library and author of a book on the history of papal elections, distributed a sheet of “some curiosities” about the elections to reporters in 2013, after Pope Benedict announced his resignation and before Pope Francis was elected.

Thousands gathered for a massive Mass outside the Metropolitan Cathedral in Buenos Aires to remember the life and legacy of Pope Francis, whose ministry as archbishop in the Argentine capital of taking the church to the peripheries and prioritizing the poor became a template for his pontificate.

The cardinals who enter the Sistine Chapel May 7 to elect a new pope use smoke signals to communicate with the outside world.

The 135 cardinals eligible to elect the next pope will enter the Sistine Chapel to begin the conclave May 7, the Vatican announced.

The conclave to elect a new pope is scheduled to begin May 7 in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican.