Nigeria, May 7 -- It begins not with a fanfare, but with a vow. A heavy silence hangs in the air, not born of absence but of sacred intent. Officials,men and women, clergy and lay, from florists to doctors, from elevator operators to Swiss Guards stand shoulder to shoulder, not in hierarchy, but in reverence. They take the oath. One by one, they swear it. A solemn promise of absolute secrecy. Perpetual silence. A duty that may well outlive their time on this earth.

Cardinal Kevin Joseph Farrell, Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church, administers the oath not just as a formality, but as a ritual of trust. It's not a movie. It's not a medieval drama. It's real. It's happening in the Vatican, now, behind walls steeped in centuries of dust, ca...