According to the new book The Election of Pope Leo XIV by Vatican correspondents Gerard O’Connell and Elisabetta Piqué, the incident occurred as 133 cardinals prepared to cast their first vote inside the Sistine Chapel. Despite the chapel being equipped with jamming devices to prevent outside communication, security detected an active mobile signal. One of the cardinals, an older cleric, discovered the phone in his pocket and handed it over, leaving him “disoriented and distressed.” The authors described the scene as “unimaginable even for a film” and unprecedented in modern conclave history, surpassing fictional portrayals such as the 2024 movie Conclave.
During conclaves, cardinals vow to remain cut off from the outside world, surrendering all communication devices for the duration of the multi-day proceedings. This particular election, held from May 7-8 following Pope Francis’s death in April, was the most geographically diverse in history, with clerics from 70 countries participating. While speculation at the time centered on the possibility of electing a pope from Asia or Africa, the book reveals that only two candidates quickly emerged as frontrunners: Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin and U.S. Cardinal Robert Prevost.
Prevost, mostly unknown outside Church circles, received an unusually high number of votes—between 20 and 30—on the first ballot, and ultimately won on the fourth ballot with 108 votes. Philippine Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, a pre-election favorite, received fewer than 10 votes but sat beside Prevost during the final tally, offering him a cough drop in a quiet gesture captured in the book.
The publication provides unprecedented insights into the conclave, including the previously undisclosed vote counts and behind-the-scenes dynamics of the cardinals, while highlighting how even centuries-old traditions remain vulnerable to modern technology.
