Ahead of the conclave, Vatican staff vow secrecy under threat of excommunication

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Cleaners and cooks. Doctors and nurses. Even drivers and elevator operators.

The support staff for the cardinals who will elect the successor to Pope Francis took an oath of secrecy Monday ahead of the conclave that's starting on Wednesday.

The punishment for breaking the oath? Automatic excommunication.

The oaths of about 100 people were taken in the Pauline Chapel at the Vatican for all those assigned to the conclave, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said. They include clerics in support roles, among them confessors speaking various languages.

The cardinals will take their oaths in the Sistine Chapel on Wednesday, before they cast their first ballots.

An array of lay women and men are required to house and feed the cardinals. A conclave's duration cannot be predicted — and it will only be known when white smoke rises out of the Sistine Chapel chimney to signal a winner.

All those people will be sequestered to be on hand for any medical needs, and maintain the majesty and ritual appropriate for the election of the next head of the 1.4 billion-strong Catholic Church. Of the 133 cardinals expected to vote at the conclave, 108 were appointed by Francis.

The cardinals will be living in residences on Vatican grounds, and they can either walk the roughly 1 kilometer (less than a mile) to the Sistine Chapel or take a special bus that runs only within the sealed Vatican grounds — and for that, drivers are also needed.

Bruni initially said Monday that cardinals would be asked to leave their mobile phones at their Vatican residence, Santa Marta, but that they wouldn’t be confiscated.

But hours later, at an evening briefing, he said that they would hand their phones over at Santa Marta and only get them back at the end of the conclave.

But, he added, the matter goes “beyond just technical questions," but is a "process united also with prayer, with meditation, with thought about who the person could be whom the Lord has identified as the pope of Rome.”

The Vatican also plans to use signal jamming around the Sistine Chapel and the residences to prevent electronic surveillance or communication outside the conclave, with the Vatican gendarmes overseeing the security measures.

The provisions for the oath-taking are laid down in Vatican law.

St. John Paul II rewrote the regulations on papal elections in a 1996 document that remains largely in force, though Pope Benedict XVI amended it twice before he resigned in 2013. He tightened the oath of secrecy, making clear that anyone who reveals what went on inside the conclave faces automatic excommunication.

Under John Paul’s rules, excommunication was always a possibility, but Benedict made it explicit.

Those taking the oath now declare that they “promise and swear that, unless I should receive a special faculty given expressly by the newly elected pontiff or by his successors, I will observe absolute and perpetual secrecy with all who are not part of the College of Cardinal electors concerning all matters directly or indirectly related to the ballots cast and their scrutiny for the election of the Supreme Pontiff.

“I likewise promise and swear to refrain from using any audio or video equipment capable of recording anything which takes place during the period of the election within Vatican City, and in particular anything which in any way, directly or indirectly, is related to the process of the election itself.

“I take this oath fully aware that an infraction thereof will incur the penalty of automatic excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See. So help me God and these Holy Gospels, which I touch with my hand.”

As the Vatican prepared for the conclave, its child protection advisory commission on Monday urged cardinals to prioritize the clergy sexual abuse issue, saying the Catholic Church’s very credibility depends on accountability, transparency and justice for victims.

The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors is a Vatican department created by Pope Francis to advise the church on best practices to fight abuse. Made up of clergy and lay experts, the commission issued a call to prayer to the cardinals who are meeting in Rome this week before entering into the conclave on Wednesday.

“Let no concern of scandal obscure the urgency of truth,” the text said. “Let no consideration for reputation impede our paramount responsibility to take action on behalf of those who have been abused.”

The abuse scandal has badly compromised the Catholic hierarchy’s credibility in many countries around the world, with revelations of decades of abuse and cover-up by bishops and religious superiors. Francis and before him Pope Benedict XVI took some steps to address the scandal, but a culture of impunity still reigns, there is no transparency from the Vatican about cases, and victims say the very process the church has put in place to deal with allegations is often retraumatizing.

The statement acknowledged the harm the scandal has done to the church’s reputation and said the cardinals bear a responsibility to victims. “The church’s credibility depends on real accountability, transparency, and action rooted in justice,” it said.

The commission’s president, Cardinal Sean O’Malley, is participating in the pre-conclave discussions but will not be voting in the election itself because he is over the age limit of 80.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Cardinal Peter Erdo leads a mass at his titular church of Santa Francesca Romana in Rome, Sunday, May 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

A man gives the last touch to a red drape wrapped around a column of the central lodge of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, Monday, May 5, 2025, before the conclave starting on May 7, where they will elect the 267th pontiff of the Catholic Church. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Catholic Templari Oggi or "Templars Today" association members parade along the city centre to arrive to St. Mary and the Martyrs Basilica, or Agrippa Pantheon, in Rome, Sunday, May 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Cardinal Francis Leo walks along St. Peters square, at the Vatican, Monday, May 5, 2025, after attending the General Congregation of cardinals in the New Synod Hall where they are preparing for the upcoming conclave starting on May 7, to elect the 267th Roman pontiff. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako leaves the Vatican on Monday, May 5, 2025, after attending the General Congregation of cardinals in the New Synod Hall where they are preparing for the upcoming conclave starting on May 7, to elect the 267th Roman pontiff. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Firefighters place the chimney on the roof of the Sistine Chapel, where cardinals will gather to elect the new pope, at the Vatican, Friday, May 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Firefighters place the chimney on the roof of the Sistine Chapel, where cardinals will gather to elect the new pope, at the Vatican, Friday, May 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

In this image taken on Wednesday, April 30, 2025, and made available Saturday, May 3, 2025, by Vatican Media, workers and restorers prepare the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican, where the upcoming conclave will start May 7. (Vatican Media via AP)

In this image taken on Friday, May 2, 2025, and made available Saturday, May 3, 2025, by Vatican Media, Italian firefighters install a temporary chimney on the roof of the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican, which will release smoke signals—black or white—from the upcoming conclave starting May 7, indicating whether a new pope has been elected. (Vatican Media via AP)

In this image taken on Monday, April 28, 2025, and made available Saturday, May 3, 2025, by Vatican Media, workers prepare the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican, where the upcoming conclave will start May 7, backdropped by Michelangelo Buonarroti's fresco 'The Last Judgement'. (Vatican Media via AP)

Investigators combed through wreckage Wednesday for clues to why a business jet crashed on a Texas highway, killing one person on board after its pilots reported mechanical problems while requesting an emergency landing at a nearby airport.

The fiery crash late Tuesday in Laredo near the Mexican border sent bystanders racing from their cars to help police rescue passengers and crew from the burning aircraft. The crash killed Joshua Baer, a leader in Texas’ technology and startup sectors, the president of Baer's company said.

Video from the frantic scene showed someone trying to smash the cockpit glass with a sledgehammer, while others used makeshift levers as they worked to open the plane's door. Local officials said a firefighter entered the smoke-filled jet to extract one person still inside after the rest had escaped.

“While the loss of life is deeply regrettable, it is nothing short of a miracle that this tragedy did not become a mass fatality event,” Laredo Mayor Victor Treviño said during a news conference Wednesday.

Two pilots and three teenagers survived the crash and have since been released from the hospital, according to the Laredo Police Department. A dog on board that suffered from smoke inhalation was also expected to survive, said Jose Baeza, an investigator with the police department.

The cause of the crash was not immediately known. The Federal Aviation Administration was investigating along with the National Transportation Safety Board.

Laredo Police Chief Miguel Rodriguez Jr. said investigators working to reconstruct the crash were at the crash site Wednesday.

Baer, 50, was known as a central figure in Austin’s turbocharged evolution as a tech hub. He was the founder and chief executive of Capital Factory, which helps entrepreneurs connect with investors and others to launch their businesses.

“The number of lives Josh impacted in Austin, across Texas, and throughout the technology community is impossible to measure,” Capital Factory President Bryan Chambers said in a post on LinkedIn.

Capital Factory executives did not immediately return phone messages Wednesday from The Associated Press.

Baer lived in Austin with his wife and three children, according to his LinkedIn page. He recently taught a student entrepreneur class at the University of Texas at Austin.

“I help people quit their jobs and become entrepreneurs,” Baer said on his LinkedIn page.

The Cessna Citation Latitude twin jet departed Tuesday evening from the Mexican resort city of San José del Cabo and was bound for Austin, Texas, the FAA said in a statement.

The plane was operated by NetJets, a company owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway that lets people buy part ownership in private jets. NetJets said in a statement it was cooperating with authorities.

The jet went down at about 10 p.m. Tuesday on the Loop 20 highway, just a few minutes after its pilots radioed the local airport seeking to make an emergency landing. Their call to air traffic controllers “mentioned low fuel and a power outage,” Laredo International Airport Director Gilberto Sanchez said.

“They had mechanical issues and they lost communication with the tower,” Sanchez said Wednesday.

Dashcam video posted on social media showed the aircraft careening down the highway and knocking down a light post before stopping near the airport. The jet also barreled into a car, sending one motorist to a hospital in stable condition, Baeza said.

Five officers treated at a hospital for smoke inhalation have since been released, according to Rodriguez.

NetJets, started as a private jet charter service in 1964, had never had a fatal crash before Tuesday. Aviation safety experts interviewed Wednesday praised the company's safety record.

It shouldn't take investigators long to get a good idea of what caused the crash, in part because both pilots survived, former NTSB investigator Alan Diehl said.

The flight’s final minutes suggest the plane may have lost power to both engines and been attempting to glide into the Laredo airport, said Jeff Guzzetti, a former FAA and NTSB investigator.

“I think they just ran out of altitude and airspeed toward the end there,” Guzzetti said.

Aviation safety expert Mary Schiavo, a former inspector general for the Transportation Department, wondered if the jet had a fuel leak based on the pilots reporting they were running low. The jet has a range of 3,000 miles (4,800 kilometers), roughly three times the distance of their planned flight to Austin.

Ultimately, Schiavo said, a lack of fuel may have prevented more death and destruction.

“Luckily, the plane didn’t explode in a fireball,” she said.

The Texas crash was the third significant aviation accident in as many days. A B-52 bomber crashed Monday during a test flight at Edwards Air Force Base in California and killed all eight people aboard, while on Sunday, 12 people were killed when a plane on a skydiving outing in Missouri crashed.

Collins reported from Hartford, Connecticut; Funk reported from Omaha, Nebraska; and Golden reported from Seattle. AP journalists Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia, and Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.

People attempt to pull passengers out of a plane after it crashed on a highway Tuesday, June 16, 2026, in Laredo, Texas. (Zayra Garza via AP)

People attempt to pull passengers out of a plane after it crashed on a highway Tuesday, June 16, 2026, in Laredo, Texas. (Zayra Garza via AP)

A passenger, top, jumps out of a plane after it crashed on a highway as other people help Tuesday, June 16, 2026, in Laredo, Texas. (Zayra Garza via AP)