You may receive news about the selection of a new pope through modern technology, but the Catholic Church still relies on a centuries-old smoke signal method, established in 1417, to announce the decision to the world.
The papal conclave of the church is currently secluded in the Vatican's Sistine Chapel, commencing the voting process this week to elect the successor of Pope Francis, who passed away on April 21.
Just like in the past centuries, the cardinals will write down their choices on paper ballots, which will then be tallied, recorded, and subsequently burned to ensure confidentiality.
By utilizing specific chemicals, the smoke produced from burning these ballots will either be black, indicating no decision has been reached, or white, signaling "Habemus papam - We have a pope," to the eager crowds gathered in St. Peter's Square.
A chimney connected to two small stoves was recently installed in the Sistine Chapel on May 2 to facilitate the smoke signal tradition.
The practice of burning ballots dates back to 1417, or possibly even earlier, as a means to safeguard the secrecy of the conclave, as noted by historian Frederic J. Baumgartner.
In 1904, Pope Pius X mandated the burning of all conclave documents for added confidentiality, resulting in an increase of white smoke signals, first used as a crowd indication in 1914.
Following confusion during the 2005 papal conclave, where the smoke initially appeared gray then turned black, the church introduced chemicals to definitively color the smoke and avoid any ambiguity.
SOURCE USA TODAY Network reporting and research; Reuters; National Catholic Reporter; OSV News; vatican.va; Georgetown University; therecordnewspaper.org; catholic365.com; aleteia.org; rtve.es; Vatican News; U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops; America: The Jesuit Review; McGill University, Office for Science and Society