VATICAN CITY — The secret conclave that elected Pope Leo XIV as head of the Catholic Church was briefly disrupted after a cardinal was discovered carrying a cellphone inside the tightly secured voting chamber, according to a new book released Sunday.
The revelation appears in The Election of Pope Leo XIV, written by veteran Vatican correspondents Gerard O’Connell and Elisabetta Piqué.
According to the authors, the incident occurred as 133 cardinals gathered inside the Sistine Chapel to begin voting in the conclave held from May 7–8 last year.
Security officials monitoring communications reportedly detected an active mobile signal, despite the chapel being fitted with electronic jamming equipment designed to block external communications.
Cardinals Discover the Phone
The discovery stunned the assembled clerics.
The cardinals reportedly looked at one another in disbelief before an elderly cardinal realised that he still had a phone in his pocket, which he promptly surrendered to security officials.
The book does not identify the cleric and does not suggest any malicious intent.
Instead, the authors wrote that the cardinal appeared “disoriented and distressed” by the discovery.
The moment they added was unprecedented in the modern history of papal elections.
“The scene was unimaginable even for a film and never before seen in the history of modern conclaves,” the authors wrote.
Conclave Rules Strictly Limit Communication
During a papal conclave, participating cardinals must take a solemn oath of secrecy and are prohibited from any contact with the outside world.
Before entering the voting process, they are required to surrender phones and all electronic devices, ensuring that the election remains entirely confidential.
The Vatican did not immediately comment on the claims detailed in the book.
The conclave followed the death of Pope Francis in April after 12 years leading the 1.4-billion-member Catholic Church.
Inside the Secret Vote
The book also provides rare insights into the voting process that led to the election of Pope Leo XIV.
While details of conclave ballots are traditionally secret, journalists often reconstruct events over time through interviews with participating cardinals.
According to the authors, two leading candidates quickly emerged.
One was Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, a long-time senior Vatican diplomat widely viewed as a frontrunner before the conclave.
The other was American Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost — largely unknown to the wider public at the time — who would ultimately be elected and take the name Pope Leo XIV.
Prevost reportedly received between 20 and 30 votes in the first ballot, an unusually strong early showing.
Meanwhile, Philippine Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, another widely discussed contender, secured fewer than 10 votes throughout the voting process.
Landslide Final Vote
The decisive moment came during the fourth ballot on the afternoon of May 8, when Prevost secured 108 votes, comfortably surpassing the required two-thirds majority.
In a lighter moment described in the book, Tagle — who was seated beside Prevost during the final vote count — reportedly offered the future pope a cough drop to soothe his throat as the results were being tallied.
The election marked a historic milestone for the Catholic Church, making Pope Leo XIV the first pontiff from the United States.
Despite the dramatic cellphone incident, the conclave concluded successfully within two days, maintaining the centuries-old tradition of electing a pope behind the closed doors of the Sistine Chapel.
