If the vote doesn't yield the two-third majority needed to elect the new pope, the cardinals go back to guesthouse Casa Santa Marta for dinner. It is then, on the sidelines of the voting process, that important conversations among the cardinals take place and consensus begins to coalesce around different names.

The United States is the home country of 10 of the 133 cardinals eligible to vote for the next pope of the Catholic Church.

While there are a few cardinals seen as front-runners to succeed Pope Francis -- two often mentioned are Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin and Filipino Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle -- many of the clerics who will vote have not made up their minds.