Welcome to the witness history podcast from the BBC World Service.

Today, we're taking you back to 2005 and to the late Pope Benedict's election by the

papal conclave.

In 2015, Rebecca Kesby spoke to Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor, who was there at the time.

April 2005, and prayers are being said in the elaborate cysteine chapel at the Vatican,

before 115 Cardinals begin to vote for the man who lead a billion Catholics worldwide indefinitely.

Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor, former head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, is among them.

Well, it does look quite dramatic.

They're all the Cardinals dressed in scarlet sitting around.

And then somebody says, egg saunter omnis, which means everybody go out except the Cardinals.

So that was a very dramatic moment, because the door is kind of shut and there's a thud.

And then I remember looking round at the other 114 Cardinals and thinking to myself,

well, one of us will be going out with a white Catholic art.

The word conclave comes from the Latin cum clave, meaning with a key.

The Cardinals are locked together in the chapel, cut off from the rest of the world.

They continue to cast ballots for each other until a 2-3rd majority is achieved.

Three Cardinals are elected to be the Scoutaners.

And one by one, we go up with our voting slip.

And it's very, very moving, very memorable, because when you go up above you

is Michael Anger's last judgment, so it's quite a solemn affair.

And what you say is I declare before God that this is the man I think should be the next pope.

So it's all, as I say, you're looking at the last judgment.

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