At 7:35 this morning, the Vatican announced that Pope Francis has died at the age of 88. Now, this news actually came as a pretty big shock because despite his age, his recent health troubles, and being hospitalized for like 5 weeks, it did kind of look like he was recovering. He was discharged from hospital. And just yesterday, think about that. Just yesterday, he was seen blessing huge crowds on Easter Sunday and even meeting JD Vance. Pray for you every day. God bless you. I don't want to see one comment. Then just mere hours after that on Easter Monday, he passed away, which I mean the timing of that no one can is pretty miraculous. This morning, bells rang across Vatican City, one for each of the 88 years of Francis's life. And in every corner of the globe, millions are mourning the passing of a pope whose influence reached far beyond the 1.4 billion Catholics that he led. Because people saw Pope Francis in particular as more than just a religious figure. They saw him almost as a global statesman. He was the first pope ever to attend a G7 summit where he warned humans to not let AI get out of control. He was the first Latin American pope and the first non-European in centuries which kind of made him a bit of an outsider of Rome. And perhaps because of that he did things very differently to those in the past. He even refused to live in the papal palace. He demanded the end to possession of nuclear weapons, the end to the death penalty. He publicly voiced support for same-sex marriages, and condemned anti-gay laws, and also appointed women to top positions of the church. But now, for the first time in over a decade, the Catholic Church has found itself without a living pope. And so, a centuries old complex process has now been set in motion. And the answer to what happens now is actually surprisingly fascinating. from his funeral process to how do they elect the next pope. So, that's what we're going to be talking about today. Make sure to subscribe to the channel and of course, let's stop the yapping and let's get cracking. Pope Francis has led the largest single religious denomination on earth with 1.4 billion people. And it's a big deal because the pope inherits enormous responsibility and authority. I mean, this just blew my mind when I heard about it. Pope Francis was the 267th leader of the church in an unbroken line dating all the way back to St. Peter. Bro, St. Peter lived 1,995 years ago, almost 2,000 years. To have unbroken the same processes go on for that long is insane. So it kind of goes without saying but this week is going to be intense. And I mean just to give you an idea of these I guess millennia old processes that they carry out the rights and rituals. There is an entire this is just mindblowing 400page book that's only purpose is to guide religious officials through the countless rights and rituals of just the funeral process. That's insane. 400 pages. And apparently it goes down to like the tiniest thing. Like there's even a traditional method to verify that you have to carry out to verify that a pope has died, which is calling the pope's name, their baptisal baptismal name three times and they don't respond three times and then he's like dead. Obviously 2025 there was a doctor involved. Uh so don't worry. Now Pope Francis, remember how I said, you know, he was very different to the last. Well, he actually overhauled that 400page book last year to make it a lot more simple. Now, his reasoning behind the overhaul was he didn't want this massive meticulous funeral process because he said he wanted to emphasize that a pope should not be seen as a powerful man of this world, but rather a disciple of Christ. Just two of the many changes that he made was that one, he will no longer be placed in three coffins, which is one cyprress, then the next one is lead, and then the next one is oak. Now he'll just be in a simple wooden coffin with a zinc one inside. But then two, he also didn't want to be buried in the Vatican like the rest. Rather he wanted to be in the Basilla of St. Mary Major, which is about half an hour across Rome. Some of these other processes include uh his fisherman's ring, which will it'll be ceremonially destroyed. Traditionally, that's done to prevent it being used to like forge documents, but now it's also like to symbolize the end of his authority. The Vatican has now officially begun their 9 days of mourning. And in that time, Pope Francis's body will be placed in St. Peter's Basilica, and it will actually be an open coffin kind of you can see us. And so, tens of thousands of people are expected to file past and pay respect in person. It kind of reminds me of the Queen's funeral. Now, following that, a grand mass will be held at the same basilica, but this time there will be countless world leaders and other like top important people, and it'll also be broadcast worldwide. And I've seen some of the pictures of the previous one. Insane amounts of people turn up. Then 15 to 20 days after the pope's passing, the intense process of choosing the next pope will begin. And I say intense because highranking officials from the Catholic Church from around the world known as cardinals will all make their way to Rome to go into what's called a conclave. Now, this part's pretty cool because the word conclave itself comes from the Latin word conclave meaning okay with a key. This does have a point. I know when anyone says get goes into the like the Latin meaning I'm like switching off but I promise you lock in. So that word is actually a nod to the old practice of locking these Catholic officials away until they made a decision. And that tradition began in the 13th century after one of these elections dragged on for nearly 3 years. And so the people in the town were pissed off and they were like that's it. So they actually locked the cardinals in, removed the roof and they said you're not coming out until you make a decision. And so fast forward to today the conclave still have that same sort of spirit of seclusion. They all go inside the cyine chapel and they all completely cut off communications from the outside world. There's no phones allowed, no internet, no news. And it's all to ensure that the deliberations and the decisions are guided only by prayer and discussion. There will apparently be around 120 cardinals and paper ballots are passed to each of them and they then write the name of their chosen candidate. Once they're done, each cardinal in order of uh seniority seniority seniority, let's go with that. They walk to the altar and then they fold the paper up and they place it in a chalice. The votes are then counted and the results are read out. Now, the winner basically has to get 23 of the votes, which doesn't happen the first time. Now, if one of them receives 2/3 of all of the votes, he then becomes the pope. And I say he because women are not allowed to become popes in the church. It kind of goes without saying, but this normally doesn't happen the first time around. So, they're allowed like four votes a day. And each time, and this is the important one, each time they burn the ballots. So if a pope hasn't been agreed on with that ballot, they burn it and the smoke turns black and that comes out a chimney, right? However, if they burn it and then the smoke turns white, that means to the world that a pope has been chosen. So apparently because of this, news companies will literally have their cameras fixed on a chimney in one of the buildings of the Vatican for literally days on this rooftop just waiting for that white smoke. I told you this goes down to like the pro you need maybe a 500page book for this. And so also traditionally about 30 to 60 minutes after that white smoke is seen, the new pope will appear over on the balcony looking over St. Peter's Square. And then there you have it, your new pope. And I guess you're wondering, why does this matter so much? Well, remember 1.4 billion people that are Catholics, 2.4 billion Christians. So that's an enormous amount of people on earth where it either really matters or at least somewhat matters who the pope is because again enormous responsibility, enormous authority. But yeah, that's what happens now over the next coming weeks and it'll be a big deal. So I'll always keep you updated on here on my TikTok. Make sure you subscribe. We're trying to hit a mill. Also note uh this week's roundup of news should have been out today, but it got pushed back because of this video. So love you and I'll see you on Wednesday.