Pontificium Consilium pro Familia - How does someone become Pope?

How does someone become Pope?

How does someone become Pope? How did the Pope become Pope? First, the Pope is a person baptized in the Catholic Church; he is a man and is not married. A Bishop, a Cardinal, a Priest, a Deacon and even a Catholic layman can become Pope. He has to be 35 years old and have studied courses on the Bible, theology, or canon law at the University. The Pope is elected at a meeting called Conclave.
	When a pope dies or resigns from his position, another Pope has to be elected. To do this, a big meeting of Cardinals—very important Bishops from around the world, who help the Pope in his service—is organized. This meeting is called the Conclave, which means locked with the key. So, to elect a new pope, the Cardinals gather in a beautiful room called the Sistine Chapel and the door is locked behind them: they cannot speak or be disturbed by anyone from outside, even by phone, until the new Pope is elected!
What happens when the Cardinals are in the Conclave? First, they promise that they will respect the rules for electing the Pope. Then, each Cardinal writes on a card the name of the person he would like to have as Pope and puts it in a container, called urn. Finally, the votes are counted: if the name of a Cardinal is repeated many times, he becomes Pope. The cards are burned in the fireplace: white smoke comes out of the chimney and the world knows that it has a new Pope!