Hi, I'm Edward Sari, and welcome to all things Catholic, where real faith meets real life.

In these days, I've been thinking a lot about something special I do with my pilgrims that I bring to Rome when I bring them to the Sistine Chapel.

After we admire the beautiful

art from Michelangelo and others, I gather them together to say an important prayer. I bring the

pilgrims to a corner in the Sistine Chapel. I huddled them up and I tell them, close your eyes,

and I want you to imagine that the Pope has died. Imagine what will happen in this very sacred space.

Eventually, cardinals from around the world will fill this chapel, and a conclave will begin.

They'll gather to discern, to pray, to discuss, and vote for who will be the next Pope.

And as they are here gathered in their conclave, they will be doing so underneath the shadow

of the majestic image, the massive image of Michelangelo's depiction of the last judgment

that features in the very middle of it Jesus Christ sitting on a throne, his fist

raised in the air and he's judging the living and the dead. And that will serve as a reminder

for those cardinals that one day they will have to render an account for how they behaved

and how they voted in this conclave. Did they vote with their consciences truly?

Did they vote in secrecy? Or was there politicking? Did they break the seal? How did they vote?

Let's pray for those cardinals that will gather here. And let's pray for the next pope, the one that

will be chosen on that day always think

about that and in these days as pope francis has passed we are in this period in between two popes

and there will soon be a conclave and there will be be many rights and ceremonies that have already taken place

at the Pope's death and many ceremonies in the days moving forward. But what are all those

rights and ceremonies? What does the church have in its tradition? Centuries old rights and

ceremonies when a Pope dies and in the transition period and how we prepare

...