Hello everybody. I'm John Fawcett with this Great America Show Midday Update for Monday, April 21st. Happy Monday, folks. I hope you all had a great weekend, a great Easter weekend, and your weeks are off to a great start.

Billions around the world this morning morning the loss of Pope Francis born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, December 1936, passed away this morning at the age of 88. Pope Francis having numerous medical

conditions over the last year or so, succumbing to those injuries earlier this morning.

Pope Francis served for just over 12 years as the Pope of the Catholic Church. The process now begins to find his successor.

Now, the death of the Pope starts a century's old ritual involving sacred oaths by Cardinals

electing his successor, the piercing of the ballots with a needle in a thread after they're counted,

and then burning them to produce either white or black smoke to signal

if the new leader for the world's 1.3 billion Catholics has been chosen.

The election itself is shrouded in secrecy with cardinals forbidden from communicating with

the outside world, what happened voting in conclave behind the frescoed walls of the Sistine Chapel.

Now, I must say, as a product of Catholic schools in the Catholic Church myself,

it is a truly fascinating process, regardless if you're Catholic or Jewish or Muslim or Christian,

to watch this all play out.

So now you folks are probably wondering who's in charge.

Well, after the Pope has died, the Camerlango or the Chamberlain must certify the death and seal the papal apartment.

It runs the administrative and financial doodles of the Holy See until the new Pope takes over.

The largely ceremonial job of the Camerango is currently led and held by Cardinal Kevin Farrell,

the Irish-born American head of the Vatican

latency office, who was announced the death on Monday morning.

Nearly all the perfects of the Vatican office lose their jobs when the Pope dies,

but a few stay on, including the foreign minister and the master of ceremonies,

who plays a key role in assembling the conclave.

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