Election of the Pope - A Cartoon
John Gracias, a Roman Catholic, presents his version of the smoke signals about the election of the Pope.
May 5, 2025
By John Gracias*
This week, 135 cardinals will assemble in the Vatican, Rome, to begin the process of electing a new Pope to replace Pope Francis, who passed away last month.
The election will take place in a secretive gathering of the cardinals in the Sistine Chapel, in the Vatican, beneath Michelangelo’s renowned frescoes. The new Pope will be the leader of 1.4 billion Catholics around the World, the largest Christian denomination.
The outcome of the election will be known to the outside world only from the plumes of smoke from the chimney of the church: black smoke means no results; white smoke signals a new Pope was elected. .
There are no favorites among the Cardinals expected to be elected Pope this week. So, as the BBC notes, “life follows fiction…The 2024 film Conclave - a box office hit and Oscar winner - tells the story of a papal election in which there are no obvious favourites.”
In the cartoon above, John Gracias presents his version of how the smoke signals are generated from within the Sistine Chapel. A Roman Catholic, while in high school, Gracias served as an altar boy at the St. Michael’s Church in Mumbai.
*John Gracias, based in Bangalore, is inspired in his cartoons by the works of Gary Larson, Michael Lunig, Kliban, Ed Mclachlan, and also underground comic artists like Crumb, Gilbert Shelton and Art Spiegelman. He retired as a ship captain for a Kuwaiti company which transports live sheep and cattle from Australia to the Middle East.