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Welcome to America Magazine's Conclave Podcast. Today is Friday, May 2nd, and we are five days away from the beginning of the conclave, which is when the doors of the Sistine Chapel will close and only the Cardinal electors will remain inside to elect the next Pope. Those Cardinals have been asking us to pray for them. Catholics around the world

are responding. They've been praying. But what should we pray for? And what does it mean to

trust the Holy Spirit? What are the Cardinals praying about? And should we be scandalized by this

intermingling of politics and spirituality that seems to happen during a conclave? We're going to be

talking through that and the other news from today.

My name is Zach Davis,

an associate editor of America Magazine

and co-host of the Jesuitical podcast.

I'll be joined later on by my colleagues,

Father James Martin, J.D. Long Garcia, and Colleen Dulley,

to talk through that and more.

But for now, I'm here with Colleen,

and you're just back from the press conference,

and you're going to bring us some of the news of the day. Yes, I am. All right. Let's get started

with perhaps the most visible piece of news for those in and around the Vatican today.

The Vatican firefighters installed the chimney, the famous chimney, from which we will see

white or black smoke during the

conclave that's on the roof of the Sistine Chapel. I honestly did not know that wasn't always up there.

...