- In May 2025, the conclave elected Pope Leo XIV.
- During the conclave, the cardinals had to surrender all communication devices without exception.
- The security service detected an active mobile signal and interrupted the voting.
The conclave held in May 2025 leading to the election of Pope Leo XIV was marred by an unprecedented incident when a mobile phone was found on one of the cardinals. Reuters reported about it.
The conclave must be held in complete secrecy. Clergy present in the Sistine Chapel must surrender all communication devices during it and must not contact the outside world. However, the violation of these rules was revealed by the book The Last Conclave: In the Vatican, Behind the Scenes of the War for Powerpublished in February by Vatican correspondents Gerard O’Connell and Elisabetta Pique.
In their book, they write that as the cardinals prepared for their first vote in the Sistine Chapel, which was equipped with a jamming device to prevent communication with the outside world, the security service has caught the signal of an active mobile connection. The conclave was suspended while its source was searched for.
One of the older voters found a mobile phone in his pocket. The book does not reveal his identity, nor does it say why he kept the device. According to the authors, the cardinal in question was “disoriented and disturbed” after his discovery.
The authors emphasize that it was a precedent in the modern history of the conclave. According to O’Connell, “the reality was more surprising than the fiction”, with the incident surpassing similar scenes from the film Conclave (2024), which depicts the intricate web of intrigue during the election of the Pope. While cardinals are strictly prohibited from releasing details of the secret ballot without the pope-elect’s approval, it is common for journalists to obtain behind-the-scenes information from them over time.
Also thanks to this, the book, which was published in February, reveals the details of the vote of the cardinals in the conclave held on May 7 and 8, 2025. Before the vote, there was intense speculation that a cardinal from Africa or Asia could become the pope. However, the book reveals that these candidates did not gain much support.
Finally, the favorites were the Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who has been leading the State Secretariat for several years, and American Cardinal Robert Provost. The Provost received 20 to 30 votes in the first round of voting, which, according to the authors of the book, is an unusually high number. He was elected pope by the votes of 108 cardinals, and after the election he chose the name Leo XIV.
