LAUREN FRAYER, HOST:
Pope Francis has been laid to rest, and preparations are underway to choose his successor. The conclave will be held in the Sistine Chapel, under a ceiling of Michelangelo's frescoes. This week, I snagged one of the last tickets to go inside that famous chapel before the College of Cardinals takes it over.
(CROSSTALK)
FRAYER: We began in a tourist traffic jam...
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Non-English language spoken).
FRAYER: ...With a tour guide named Guido Airoldi.
GUIDO AIROLDI: Well, this is Vatican City. Within...
FRAYER: Within Vatican City is the Sistine Chapel, named for Pope Sixtus IV, who oversaw renovations here in the late 15th century. As we inch toward the building, we see it's actually...
AIROLDI: Very unimpressive from the outside because it's a private chapel. There's no square, no fountains, and it's the only way to get into the Sistine Chapel is to go through the papal palace, where we are now.
FRAYER: The papal palace is vast. It houses the Vatican library, government offices, papal apartments and museums full of ancient Roman sculptures, Gothic gargoyles, Etruscan artifacts and Renaissance masterpieces.
AIROLDI: Here we have angels with trumpets, announcing the beginning of judgment - souls climbing to heaven, and souls being thrown into hell.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Non-English language spoken).
FRAYER: On the day Pope Francis died, a hundred and thirty-five of the Catholic Church's cardinals were under age 80, making them eligible for this conclave. They will not wind their way to the chapel, the way we are, though.
AIROLDI: First, they go and visit a chapel called the Pauline Chapel, where they pray God to inspire them for what they're about to do. And then it's a procession. The cardinals come through a huge door, which is now closed - wooden door in the Sistine Chapel. They all come in and they sign their name and other rituals that we don't know about.
FRAYER: What we do know is that they'll sleep in a hotel adjacent to the chapel. It's where Pope Francis himself lived in a break with tradition, rather than in the papal palace. For the conclave, the chapel will be transformed.
AIROLDI: They need to bring a special floor, special tables and chairs. They need to bring the stove and the pipe and the chimney. They have to put the chimney...
FRAYER: Ah, for the famous white smoke.
AIROLDI: Yes, they have to arrange the chapel for the election.
FRAYER: The Vatican says this special floor protects marble inlay and provides a more level surface. But an American priest who runs a think tank in Rome, Father Robert Sirico, tells NPR the floor also has cellphone jamming devices underneath it to prevent cardinals from leaking information, and in a very modern way, keep them locked away from the outside world, as per ancient tradition, says Airoldi, our guide.
AIROLDI: And that's since centuries. That's why it's called conclave because they were locked up there. Con clave - with key.
FRAYER: But the doors are not locked yet, and we're about to go in. Because talking is discouraged once you enter the chapel, Airoldi sets the scene with pictures he has on hand.
AIROLDI: The ceiling, Michelangelo's ceiling, with the most famous scene, the creation of Adam in the image of God.
FRAYER: And explains the backstory of how one of the most famous artworks of all time, the fresco commissioned by Pope Julius II, almost didn't get painted.
AIROLDI: Michelangelo doesn't want to work here. He's a sculptor. He's not interested in doing this. But the pope has made up his mind, and you have to understand that in those days, if you refuse to work for a pope, your career is over anyway, so you might as well give it a try.
FRAYER: So Michelangelo did and then went back to sculpture and hardly ever painted again. I mean, why would you?
AIROLDI: OK, here's the Sistine Chapel. To exit, you go to the left.
FRAYER: And with that, three hours after we arrived and well prepped by Airoldi, we're ushered into the Sistine Chapel itself with about 500 other tourists.
There are children. There's a man in crutches here. But even shoulder to shoulder with several hundred people, it is incredible. And right up at the center on the ceiling is Adam reaching out and touching his finger with a bearded, gray-haired God.
It's Michelangelo's masterpiece, and it's breathtaking. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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