Everyone from cooks to translators to elevator operators took an oath of secrecy at the Vatican on Monday — under threat of automatic excommunication — to prepare for this week’s conclave.
Workers and clerics assisting the dozens of Catholic cardinals set to gather Wednesday to begin voting on the next pope had to swear to never reveal anything about the proceedings or else risk the Church’s gravest punishment: religious banishment.
The employees took their oaths in the Papal Chapel.
The cardinals will swear to secrecy in the Sistine Chapel on Wednesday before their voting starts.
The oath-takers state they “promise and swear that, unless I should receive a special faculty given expressly by the newly elected pontiff or by his successors, I will observe absolute and perpetual secrecy with all who are not part of the College of Cardinal electors concerning all matters directly or indirectly related to the ballots cast and their scrutiny for the election of the Supreme Pontiff.
“I likewise promise and swear to refrain from using any audio or video equipment capable of recording anything which takes place during the period of the election within Vatican City, and in particular anything which in any way, directly or indirectly, is related to the process of the election itself.
“I take this oath fully aware that an infraction thereof will incur the penalty of automatic excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See. So help me God and these Holy Gospels, which I touch with my hand.”
The conclave, or meeting of the cardinals to pick the next pope, is expected to last just a few days.
Beloved Pope Francis died last month at age 88.
With Post wires
