Cardinals arriving for the primary day of informal meetings after Pope Francis’ funeral were swarmed on the city-state’s gates by journalists longing for hints of whether any consensus was constructing across the election of a successor. A date for the beginning of the highly anticipated conclave could come as soon as Monday.
In a chaotic scene, journalists shouted out questions on the mood inside, whether there was unity, and when the conclave would begin. A reporter for a satirical Italian television program repeatedly asked whether an Italian cardinal who has been convicted by the Vatican criminal court on finance-related charges can be allowed to vote.
“There is the hope of unity,” said Argentine Cardinal Ángel Sixto Rossi, the 66-year-old archbishop of Cordoba who was made a cardinal by Francis in 2023.
Many cardinals cited the need to proceed Francis’ pastoral give attention to people who find themselves marginalized and against war. But conservatives within the ranks could also be more focused on forging unity and refocusing the church back to core doctrines emphasized by St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, relatively than continuing Francis’ social justice focus and outreach to women and gays.
British Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the 79-year-old archbishop of Westminster, was adamant that the church must strive for unity, and he downplayed divisions.
“The role of the pope is to essentially hold us together and that’s the grace we’ve been given from God,” said Nichols.
Venezuelan Cardinal Baltazar Enrique Porras Cardozo expressed confidence that when the conclave begins, a call can be quick, “between two and three days.”
Cardinal electors
The College of Cardinals that can elect a latest pope includes members from far-flung corners of the globe whom Francis named over his 12-year papacy to usher in latest points of views of the Catholic Church hierarchy. Many have spent little or no time in Rome attending to know their colleagues, injecting some uncertainty right into a process that requires two-thirds of the 135 voting-age cardinals to coalesce behind a single candidate.
Nichols acknowledged that the 135 cardinal electors — 108 of whom were appointed by Francis — don’t know one another thoroughly. The last 20 were appointed in early December.
“We’ve got all week,” Nichols said as he arrived Monday.
Only cardinals under 80 are eligible to vote, and it will not be clear how lots of the 135 will participate. A Spanish cardinal has already said he won’t come to Rome for health reasons.
An enormous uncertainty is whether or not Cardinal Angelo Becciu, once some of the powerful cardinals within the Vatican, will probably be allowed within the Sistine Chapel. Francis in 2020 forced Becciu to resign as head of the Vatican’s saint-making office and surrender his rights as a cardinal due to allegations of embezzlement and financial fraud. Becciu denied any wrongdoing but was placed on trial within the Vatican criminal court and convicted of finance-related charges in December, 2023.
He is appealing the conviction and has participated within the pre-conclave meetings, but there may be a lingering query about whether he’s entitled to vote. The Vatican’s official statistics list him as a “non-elector.” When he was ousted in 2020, Becciu told a unexpectedly arranged press conference that he would not be voting in any future conclave, but recently, he has insisted he’s entitled to vote and canon lawyers have been poring over the Vatican document regulating the conclave to find out if he’s right.
Papal candidates
While Francis stacked the ranks together with his cardinals, it will not be necessarily the case that every one of them will need to see the church proceed in his image.
On Monday morning, any glimpse of a red cap appearing along St. Peter’s Square’s stately colonnade set journalists running with cameras and voice recorders aloft to capture the mood inside, nonetheless fleeting.
Italian Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, considered a contender to be the subsequent pope, navigated the scrum of converging journalists with humor, but didn’t give anything away. He joked that he was “holding his breath” because the microphones and cameras surrounded him all of the technique to the Vatican gate.
African voices
Nigerian Cardinal John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan, the emeritus archbishop of Abuja, was asked if the African cardinals were coalescing around a specific candidate.
African bishops had made a remarkably united stand last 12 months against Francis’ outreach to LGBTQ+ people, refusing to implement his declaration allowing priests to supply blessings to same-sex couples. Given such a stand, there may be some speculation that the 18 African cardinal electors could help block a progressive candidate from emerging.
“We haven’t come here for a political rally. We have come to get a pope out,” said Onaiyekan, who at 81 is just too old to vote but can have a job in influencing how younger electors might.
Asian and Latin American voices
Indian Cardinal Anthony Poola, the 61-year-old archbishop of Hyderabad, said he had experienced a way of unity amongst his fellow cardinals but allowed that “anything could occur.” As a comparatively young cardinal, Poola is one among 4 Indian electors who will take part in the conclave, three of whom, including Poola, were named by Francis.
“Anyone who’s coming up should be the successor of St. Peter, and all of us hope that he will probably be a very good pope,” he said.
Rossi, the Argentine cardinal, said he hoped that Francis’ message of “mercy, closeness, charity, tenderness and faith,” would accompany them to find a successor.
But he acknowledged the job was daunting. Asked how he felt about participating in his first conclave, he responded with amusing: “Afraid.″
