PAPAL CONCLAVE WILL INCLUDE SWEEP FOR BUGS.

Byline: Associated Press 

Behind the closed doors of the Sistine Chapel, dozens of cardinals scrawl their choice for the new pope on slips of paper. The ballots are burned after each vote, and the cardinals are sworn to secrecy. Smoke signals communicate their progress to the outside world.

The essence of this secretive ritual - one of the Roman Catholic Church's most traditional - isn't about to change. But in the face of rapidly advancing technology, Pope John Paul II is launching a new effort to keep intrigue out of the Vatican's 9th-century walls when it comes time for his successor to be chosen.

On Friday, the Vatican issued a new rule book for papal conclaves that requires technicians to sweep the Sistine Chapel for bugs and bans cellular phones.

Monsignor Jorge Maria Mejia, an Argentine prelate who is secretary of the College of Cardinals, said new inventions like sophisticated listening devices and cellular telephones mean the Vatican's walls "are no longer insurmountable."

Breaches of conclave security are rare. The last known leak was during the election of Pius X in 1903, when the Habsburg emperor, Franz Josef, apparently found out who one of the candidates was and vetoed him.

Nearly every pope this century has revised the rules for papal conclaves, which occur immediately following the death - or in rare cases, resignation - of a pontiff.

John Paul II, however, has been particularly sensitive to new technology since assuming the papacy in 1978. Vatican documents are now available on the Internet.

The new rule book decrees that in the Sistine Chapel, "careful and stringent checks must be made, with the help of trustworthy individuals of proven technical ability, in order to ensure that no audiovisual equipment has been secretly installed."

Everyone with access to the conclave - from cooks to housekeepers to doctors - must "swear to refrain from using any audio or video equipment capable of recording anything that takes place," the pope wrote.

John Paul II sternly reminded Catholics of the penalty for revealing details of the voting: excommunication.

John Paul II has sat through two conclaves himself - both in 1978, when he was cardinal of Krakow, Poland. The second chose him as the first non-Italian pope in 455 years.

The Vatican brushed aside any suggestion that the changes in papal elections have anything to do with the fitness of the pontiff, who turns 76 in May and has suffered health problems in recent years.

Concern about his health had "nothing to do with it," Mejia said. He said the pope simply had some ideas based on his own conclave experiences.

In many ways, the new rule book maintains the traditions that have guided the conclaves for centuries.

The meetings will continue to be held in the Sistine Chapel, "where everything is conducive to an awareness of the presence of God, in whose sight each person will one day be judged."

As has been traditional for centuries, if a vote fails to yield the mandatory two-thirds majority of cardinals, the paper ballots, hand-written and twice-folded, will be burned on a special plate.

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Photo Monsignor Mejia Says technology fuels change