Everything is already planned in Santa Marta To accommodate the Cardinals during his retirement for the conclave in the Sistine.
In Santa Marta ordinarily living about 70 priests who work in different agencies of the Holy See. last week they had to empty their rooms, clean their desk and leave the free rooms to accommodate the Cardinals. Other units of the Vatican.
Subsequently, the Gendarmerie He checked the rooms to make sure there are no microphones and then seized them waiting for their temporary guests. We had to enable also Santa Marta Vecchia To house the 132 cardinals who will be living there. The journey to the chapel Sistine It is approximately 1 kilometer in internal halls and several stairs.
The Sistine chapel It is one of the most emblematic spaces of the Vaticanboth for its artistic value and for its religious function. It was built between 1473 and 1481 by order of the Pope Sixto ivwho takes his name. Is located in the Apostolic Palace And since the fifteenth century it is the scene of Conclave.Artistic and architectural history.
The chapel was initially decorated by great artists of the Renaissance as Botticelli, Garland, Perugian y Pinturicchiowho painted old and new testament scenes on the side walls.
-Between 1508 and 1512, the Pope Julio II commissioned to Miguel Ángel The roof painting, a colossal work that represents scenes of Genesis, including the iconic Creation of Adam. Later, between 1536 and 1541, under the gaps of Clemented live y Pablo III, Miguel Ángel painted the fresh monumental of Final judgment on the wall of the altar: “the final judgment.”
The cardinals will enter that painting that is not just decorative. when the cardinals enter the Sistine chapel To choose a new Pope, the whole world observes them from outside. But they, on the other hand, have the look fixed in another direction: in the Cristo of the final judgment what Miguel Ángel He painted on the altar. There is no easy ornament or comfort. Cristo It appears in the center, with a firm gesture, surrounded by saints marked by suffering. On one side, the resurrected ascend; On the other, those who have closed to love descend. It is not a threat: it is a truth call. Every time the cardinals look up, remember that they are not there to do politics or strategy, but to discern the will of God.
The fresco of Final Judgment He speaks to the heart: he reminds them that they are not choosing the successor of Francisco but to the successor of Pedrosomeone who will be a shepherd of God’s peopleeveryone’s server, especially the last. They do not choose the most capable, to the strongest, or the most influential: they seek, in prayer and conscience, whom God wants.
And they know that one day, like all of us, they will appear before that same Cristo. Therefore, each ballot deposited in the urn is not just a vote: it is a confession of faith, an act of responsibility to history, and a gesture of humility before the mystery.
In that climate of silence, under that look that crosses everything, art becomes preaching. Miguel Ángel He does not judge them; But their painting places them at the only question that matters: Are we being faithful to the Gospel?
The Sistine chapelwith its beauty and spiritual weight, not only custody the secret of conclave: It wraps it in a call to truth, at the service and eternity.
