尊敬的用户您好，这是来自FT中文网的温馨提示：如您对更多FT中文网的内容感兴趣，请在苹果应用商店或谷歌应用市场搜索“FT中文网”，下载FT中文网的官方应用。
The death of Pope Francis has been met with an outpouring of grief from Catholics bereft at the passing of their spiritual leader who brought humility and inclusivity to the church.
教皇方济各(Pope Francis)的逝世引发了天主教徒的深切哀悼，他们为失去这位为教会带来谦逊与包容的精神领袖而感到无比悲痛。
But once the mourning ends, attention will turn to the papal conclave: the secretive Vatican gathering where cardinals will choose Francis’s successor.
但一旦哀悼期结束，人们的注意力将转向教皇秘密选举会议：这是在梵蒂冈(Vatican)举行的秘密会议，枢机主教们将在那里选出教皇方济各的继任者。
While the papacy is often described as a monarchy without a dynasty, the cardinals — so-called princes of the church — will select who will rule over them and give spiritual guidance to the world’s 1.4bn Catholics.
虽然教皇职位常被称为没有王朝的君主制，但被称为“教会王子”的红衣主教们将会选出他们的统治者，并为全球14亿天主教徒提供精神指引。
How does the conclave work?
秘密会议是如何进行的？
Cardinals are sequestered in the Vatican for multiple rounds of secret ballots, prohibited from any verbal or written contact with the outside world until a decision is made.
红衣主教们被隔离在梵蒂冈，进行多轮秘密投票。在做出决定之前，他们被禁止与外界进行任何口头或书面接触。
Votes are held in the Sistine Chapel, which, according to the Archdiocese of Toronto, is swept for bugs beforehand, then locked and sealed while cardinals are inside.
投票在西斯廷教堂(Sistine Chapel)进行。根据多伦多总教区的说法，教堂在投票前会进行窃听设备排查，然后在枢机主教们进入后被锁闭并封存。
During each round, electors write the name of their preferred candidate on a slip of paper, and deposit them into a silver urn, proclaiming “before God” that they have voted their conscience. Afterwards, results are read out, revealing potential contenders and the strength of their support.
在每一轮投票中，选举人会把自己心仪的候选人名字写在纸条上，投入一个银色的瓮中，并宣誓“在上帝面前”他们已凭良心投票。随后，计票结果会被宣读，揭示潜在竞争者及其支持力度。
Voting continues until one man secures the backing of two-thirds of the electors. Ballot papers are burned after each round, with black smoke emitting from the chimney if no decision has been made, while white smoke indicates the selection of the next pope.
投票会持续进行，直到有一人获得三分之二选举人的支持。每轮投票结束后，选票都会被焚烧。如果尚未选出新教皇，烟囱会冒出黑烟；而白烟则表示新教皇已经产生。
Conclaves are infused with prayers for divine wisdom to guide electors’ choices, and vows of perpetual secrecy about the proceedings — though Francis did, unusually, shed light years later about what went on during the conclaves of 2005 and 2013.
秘密会议中充满了祈祷，祈求神圣的智慧指引选举人的抉择，并要求与会者对会议过程永久保密——不过，教皇方济各却在多年后罕见地透露了2005年和2013年秘密会议中的一些情况。
Who participates?
谁参与？
All 252 Catholic cardinals can attend preliminary consultations on assessing Francis’s legacy and the church’s contemporary challenges — discussions that can heavily influence the vote. But only cardinals younger than 80 years old can vote for, or be selected as, the new pontiff.
所有252位天主教枢机主教都可以参加关于评估教皇方济各遗产及教会当代挑战的初步磋商——这些讨论可能会对投票产生重大影响。但只有80岁以下的枢机主教才有资格投票或被选为新教宗。
Although Francis’s predecessor Pope Benedict declared the number of electors should be capped at 120, Francis’s hectic pace of appointments, including 20 new voting-age cardinals just named in December, means the church has 135 eligible electors.
尽管教皇方济各的前任教皇本笃曾规定选举人上限为120人，但由于方济各任命新枢机主教的步伐加快，仅去年12月就新任命了20位有投票权的枢机主教，因此目前教会有135名有资格投票的选举人。
In all, Francis has appointed 80 per cent of this group, whose composition reflects the changing make-up of a global Catholic Church declining in its historic European heartland while thriving elsewhere.
总体而言，这一群体中有80%是由教皇方济各任命的，其成员构成反映了全球天主教会(Catholic Church)的变化格局：在其历史上的欧洲中心地带日益衰落，而在其他地区则蓬勃发展。
Just 53 are Europeans, while 23 are from Asia, 18 from Africa, 21 from central and South America, 16 from North America, and 4 from Oceania, according to the Holy See.
据梵蒂冈(Holy See)称，只有53人是欧洲人，23人来自亚洲，18人来自非洲，21人来自中美洲和南美洲，16人来自北美洲，4人来自大洋洲。
How long will the conclave last?
秘密会议会持续多久？
In the Middle Ages, papal conclaves lasted weeks or even months as rival factions battled to install their favourites in the vacant seat. Of late, decision making has accelerated, with recent popes chosen in a few days.
在中世纪(Middle Ages)，教皇选举秘密会议往往持续数周甚至数月，因为各派系为让自己支持的人登上空缺的教皇宝座而激烈争斗。近年来，决策速度明显加快，最近几任教皇都在几天内就被选出。
It took eight rounds to elect Pope John Paul II in 1978, while Pope Benedict was elected after four rounds in 2005 and Francis after five in 2013.
1978年，经过八轮投票才选出教皇约翰•保禄二世；2005年，本笃教皇在第四轮当选；2013年，教皇方济各则是在第五轮当选。
But Massimo Faggioli, a professor of theology at Villanova University, said this conclave would be more complex, given the number of electors and their geographic diversity, which could make reaching consensus harder. “It will be very messy — there is a high number of them and they don’t know each other well,” he said.
但维拉诺瓦大学(Villanova University)神学教授马西莫•法焦利(Massimo Faggioli)表示，这次秘密会议将更加复杂，因为选举人的数量众多且地域分布广泛，这可能会让达成共识变得更加困难。他说：“这将会非常混乱——他们人数众多，而且彼此并不熟悉。”
The conclave will begin two to three weeks after Francis’s death, giving cardinals from around the world time to travel to Rome.
教皇方济各去世后，两到三周后将召开秘密会议，让来自世界各地的枢机主教有时间前往罗马。
If there is no decision after three days, electors pause for a day of rest, prayer and informal consultations, before voting resumes. After every seven unsuccessful rounds, electors pause again. If a pope is still not chosen after 33 rounds, the field is cut to the top two cardinals, with a two-thirds majority required to secure the papacy.
如果三天后仍未作出决定，选举人将暂停一天，用于休息、祈祷和非正式磋商，之后再恢复投票。每七轮投票未果后，选举人还会再次暂停。如果经过33轮投票仍未选出教皇，候选人范围将缩小为得票最多的两位枢机主教，最终仍需获得三分之二多数票才能当选教皇。
Are there any favourites for the job?
这个职位有热门人选吗？
The race to succeed Francis comes after his papacy, especially his drive to make the church more inclusive, has aggrieved traditionalists.
在教皇方济各任期内，尤其是他推动教会更加包容的努力，令传统主义者感到不满，如今关于谁将继任的竞争已经展开。
Though there are no official nominees, the late pope’s illness in recent months shed light on several potential successors. They range from continuity candidates such as his right-hand man, Vatican secretary of state Pietro Parolin to reformist Luis Tagle from the Philippines to arch-conservatives such as Guinea’s Robert Sarah.
尽管目前还没有正式提名的候选人，但已故教皇近几个月的病情让一些潜在继任者浮出水面。这些人选包括主张延续现状的候选人，如他的得力助手、梵蒂冈国务卿皮耶特罗•帕罗林(Pietro Parolin)，也有来自菲律宾的改革派路易斯•塔格莱(Luis Tagle)，以及像几内亚的罗伯特•萨拉(Robert Sarah)这样的极端保守派。
Conclaves are notoriously unpredictable and early front-runners can be overtaken by dark horses that gain support as voting progresses.
秘密会议的结果一向难以预料，随着投票的推进，最初的热门人选可能会被逐渐获得支持的黑马超越。
“The secret of winning the vote is not having most of the votes in the first ballot — but to be able to accrue mileage as it goes along,” Faggioli said.
法焦利表示：“赢得选票的秘诀并不是在第一轮投票中获得最多的票数，而是在后续的投票过程中不断积累优势。”
As a popular Italian proverb holds, “he who enters the conclave a pope comes out a cardinal”.
正如一句流行的意大利谚语所说：“以教皇之姿进入秘密会议的人，出来时只会成为枢机主教。”
This story has been updated to reduce the number of eligible electors to 135 following an update from the Vatican
根据梵蒂冈的最新消息，本文已更新，将合格选举人的人数下调至135人。