VATICAN CITY: The world’s Catholic cardinals met on Monday (Apr 28) for the primary time after the funeral of Pope Francis to debate a doable date to enter a secret conclave and elect the subsequent chief of the worldwide Church.
Any choice may very well be introduced round noon. The conclave shouldn’t be anticipated to start earlier than Might 6.
The Sixteenth-century Sistine Chapel, the place conclaves are held, was closed to vacationers on Monday to permit for preparations for the vote.
The previous two conclaves, in 2005 and 2013, lasted simply two days. However Swedish Cardinal Anders Arborelius mentioned on Monday he expects this conclave might take longer, as lots of the cardinals appointed by Pope Francis have by no means met one another earlier than.
Pope Francis made a precedence of appointing cardinals from locations that had by no means had them, akin to Myanmar, Haiti, and Rwanda.
“We do not know one another,” Arborelius, one among about 135 cardinals beneath the age of 80 who will enter the conclave, mentioned.
Pope Francis, pope since 2013, died aged 88 on Apr 21. His funeral on Saturday and a procession via Rome to his burial place on the Basilica of St. Mary Main attracted crowds estimated at greater than 400,000.
German Cardinal Walter Kasper instructed La Repubblica newspaper that the outpouring of mourners for Pope Francis indicated that Catholics wished the subsequent pope to proceed together with his reforming model of papacy.
Pope Francis, the primary pope from Latin America, largely tried to open up the usually staid Church to new conversations. He allowed debate on points akin to ordaining ladies as clergy and outreach to LGBTQ Catholics.
“The Individuals of God voted with their toes,” mentioned Kasper, who’s 92 and won’t participate within the conclave. “I’m satisfied that we should go forward within the footsteps of Francis.”
Nevertheless, a bloc of conservative cardinals are sure to push again in opposition to this and search a pope who reasserts traditions and restricts Francis’ imaginative and prescient of a extra inclusive Church.
