In a surprising revelation shared in a newly published book, it has come to light that the secretive conclave which elected Pope Leo as the leader of the Catholic Church last May was unexpectedly disrupted. The cause? One of the 133 participating cardinals was discovered with a cellphone, leading to a significant security breach during this sacred event.
The extraordinary episode unfolded as the cardinals were about to cast their first votes within the Vatican’s iconic Sistine Chapel. Despite the chapel being equipped with sophisticated jamming equipment to block any external communications, security personnel detected the presence of an active mobile signal.
Amidst a wave of disbelief, the cardinals exchanged bewildered glances until one of the senior clerics realized he had inadvertently brought his phone along. The cleric, described as being “disoriented and distressed,” promptly surrendered the device, as detailed in the book “The Election of Pope Leo XIV” by veteran Vatican journalists Gerard O’Connell and Elisabetta Pique.
The authors chose not to disclose the identity of the cardinal nor imply any intentional wrongdoing, emphasizing the unprecedented nature of the incident. “It was a scene unimaginable even in cinematic portrayals and unprecedented in the history of modern conclaves,” they noted.
SECURITY BREACH WAS ‘BETTER THAN FICTION’
Such an unexpected real-life twist even surpassed the dramatic scenarios depicted in films like the 2024 blockbuster “Conclave,” which envisioned complex plots during the fictional selection of a pope. Reflecting on the incident, O’Connell remarked to Reuters that the accidental discovery of the phone was, in its own way, more astonishing than any scripted drama.
One such film, the 2024 hit “Conclave”, imagined a tangled web of intrigues during the fictional selection of a pontiff. Last year’s unprecedented discovery of a phone was in its own way more startling than anything portrayed in that movie, O’Connell told Reuters.
“Reality (was) better than fiction,” he said.
Clerics taking part in a conclave take a vow not to communicate with the outside world and surrender their phones and all other communication devices for the duration of the proceedings, which can last for days.
The Vatican press office did not respond to a request for comment about the new book, which offers behind-the-scenes details of one of the world’s most secretive elections.
ONLY TWO LEADING CANDIDATES FOR POPE
The cardinals met in a two-day conclave from May 7-8 under an intense global spotlight to elect a successor to Pope Francis, who died in April after 12 years leading the 1.4-billion-member Church.
Much of the speculation at the time focused on the possibility that the cardinals would elect a new pontiff from Asia or Africa, given that the conclave was the most geographically diverse in history, with clerics from 70 countries taking part.
But no candidate from those regions garnered much support, according to the book, which discloses details of the cardinals’ votes for the first time based on information from interviews with participating clerics.
While it is strictly forbidden for cardinals to reveal details of the secret balloting at a conclave without permission from the future pope, it is common for journalists to slowly tease out information from clerics in the years afterward.
Two candidates immediately emerged as frontrunners inside the conclave, the book said.
One was Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, a long-time Vatican official identified by many outlets as a leading favorite.
The other was US Cardinal Robert Prevost, a figure who was mostly unknown outside Church circles but would emerge as Pope Leo, the first pontiff from the US.
On the first vote in the conclave, held in the evening of May 7, Prevost already received between 20-30 votes, an unusually large number, according to the book.
Philippine Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, who was also seen as a favorite going into the election, only ever received fewer than 10 votes in the conclave.
On the fourth ballot in the afternoon of May 8, Prevost won with 108 votes. Tagle was sitting next to Prevost as the final vote was being tallied and offered the future pope a cough drop to soothe his throat, the book said.
