How is a new Pope selected? Is that person ready to take over the minute

the current Pope dies, or is there a time when there is no Pope?

process. http://www.catholic-pages.com/pope/election.asp

The time between popes is called the Interregnum.

9 days of mourning (and travel time for cardinals).

10-15 days of getting started.

2 votes each morning and afternoon in the Sistine Chapel (Sorry, tourists!).

Black smoke if two thirds majority not met.

White smoke when two thirds vote met.

Cardinals voting can't be older than 80.

At least, that's my understanding.

It was in the paper in the last few months.

On edit: this shows he added 31 back in November 2003--and there's 122 likely "cardinal electors". Not sure the distinction between cardinals and cardinal electors unless it's simply the 'over-80' rule.

many are too young to know the ritual

there is a period when there is no pope. it's a very political election to get a new one

all of the Cardinals must gather at the Vatican, most of them are on their way or are already there right now. Then they go into a room and stay there until they pick one of their members to be the next pope.

I think that in three days if they haven't made a decision they send up a puff of black smoke. Then when they do decide, they signal with a puff of white smoke.

Personally, I'm dreading who they will pick for the next pope. Rumor has it that it's supposed to be the anti-christ and if it turns out to be a member of Opus Dei then there won't be much of difference between the two.

has always been the anti-Christ. Mostly I think that there will be a great deal of surprize in the person of the new pope. It is really hard to get 2/3 majority amoung any group of people and once they are sequestered in the chapel they are supposed to remain silent as they pray and vote. I'm sure there are some machinations but they are subdued.

On edit- Diebold will not have a hand in the balloting as they use paper ballots.

When the "new guy" comes to the "office," will he get some sort of "on the job training"? Who does that training, if so? Do Cardinals all along accept the fact that it is possible they will be the Pope some day, so they learn as much as they can about the responsibilities of Pope-dom? We're talking about a "job" that affects a billion people across the planet; I would hope that, in addition to being the most holy or whatever criteria the Cardinal electors use, the new Pope would have more mundane qualifications. Y'know, like leadership, administrative and managerial abilities, communication skills, etc.

Or maybe it's more like, well, he's the Pope so of course he's qualified (circular reasoning, but maybe it's all supposed to be about divine intervention, that it will be obvious that God has chosen this person because he's qualified).

It seems as if the Popes we've had in my lifetime have been at least intelligent and able (whether or not I agree with the policies they've instituted, they haven't appeared to be incompetent in any way). What if the next one's a dunce? A papal W? Will the Vatican cover for him? Is there a holy Cheney somewhere in the wings?