{"id":168924,"date":"2025-05-09T14:32:50","date_gmt":"2025-05-09T18:32:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=168924"},"modified":"2025-05-09T16:41:28","modified_gmt":"2025-05-09T20:41:28","slug":"ancient-ruins-to-white-smoke-a-bates-students-front-row-view-of-the-papal-election-in-rome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2025\/05\/09\/ancient-ruins-to-white-smoke-a-bates-students-front-row-view-of-the-papal-election-in-rome\/","title":{"rendered":"Ancient ruins to white smoke: A Bates student’s up-close view of the papal election in Rome"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On May 7, on the cobblestones of St. Peter\u2019s Square, my peers and I were trying to recall Rome\u2019s nickname. New York is the Big Apple, Paris is the City of Lights, but what was Rome? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We found the answer printed on a shirt I had purchased just hours before \u2014 Rome, the Eternal City. We had to use my shirt, rather than the internet, because all signals were jammed \u2014 sequestered cardinals in the Sistine Chapel aren\u2019t allowed to use cell phones during conclave, and evidently neither were we.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"
Black smoke rises from Sistine Chapel\u2019s chimney on the evening of May 7, signaling the conclave\u2019s 133 cardinals did not decide on a new pope. (Photograph by Carly Philpott ’27)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For this Short Term course, called \u201cLayers of Rome,\u201d we had traveled to Rome to explore the ancient city. But after watching the election of a new pope between lessons on ancient art and architecture, I have personally witnessed what that \u201ceternal\u201d label really means. Rome never stops moving; we are lucky to catch any of it. On May 8, though, it stood still.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not religious in any manner, but feeling part of such a historic moment doesn\u2019t require you to be Catholic. It also doesn\u2019t require you to know really anything in advance. All you have to do is absorb the moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My peers and I knew nothing at all. We had arrived at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, the first day of the conclave, and expected to know the results by 7:30. We hadn\u2019t eaten or used the bathroom beforehand. By the time the black smoke actually emerged from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel just after 9 o’clock, we were cold, starving, and all desperately needed a toilet.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\":
St. Peter’s Square became a worldly place during the conclave, including this group from India. (Photograph by Carly Philpott ’27)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The next night, May 8, we knew a little more. For one thing, we knew smoke wouldn\u2019t happen until at least an hour after the actual vote. We also knew to eat (and pee) before heading there again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We weren\u2019t planning to actually go to the square on the second night; I had read that a decision would likely be reached the next day. That was until the bells tolled, and off we dashed down the hill to the Vatican, just a kilometer away from our hotel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And this is where I feel the city stopped, somehow. Despite the rush of people from every corner into the Vatican, roads were closed to cars and the whole city was on the edge of its seat. There were smiles and quick phone calls before folks entered the no-service zone. I accidentally jostled a nun beside me as I approached a security checkpoint and expected her to be ticked off; instead, she smiled at me, offered me her place, and assured me that there was no way I\u2019d miss the papal speech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Visitors
Visitors to St. Peter’s Square capture images of Cardinal Robert Prevost’s first speech as Pope Leo XIV, on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, on May 8, 2025. (Photograph by Carly Philpott ’27)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It was a tremendous bonding experience with my peers, too. As we\u2019ve trekked through impossibly crowded streets together, we\u2019ve also learned a lot about each other and experienced something incomparable together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was no way to predict when I signed up for our course that Short Term 2025 would coincide with a papal conclave or that we would be staying just meters away from such a monumental moment. <\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Emma
Emma Gay ’25 of Herndon, Va., captured this portrait of Carly Philpott ’27 in St. Peter’s Square.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

To me, though, it is a testament to the immersive experience of this part of the Bates school year \u2014 at few other schools would I have had the opportunity to experience such new and valuable history in person while exploring the way the ancient layers of this eternal city have recorded human history. I am lucky, I am grateful, and I am awed to be here in Rome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Carly Philpott ’27 is a double major in classical and medieval studies and environmental studies from Centennial, Colo. She will serve as editor-in-chief of <\/em>The Bates Student in 2025\u201326 with Trinity Poon ’26 of Forestdale, Mass. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Feeling swept up in the election of a new pope doesn\u2019t require you to be Catholic, writes Carly Philpott ’27, who is in Rome with a Short Term course in classical and medieval studies. “All you have to do is absorb the moment.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":168933,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[4,224,11012],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-168924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-life","category-society-culture","category-student-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168924"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168924\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":168997,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168924\/revisions\/168997"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}