VATICAN CITY—Roman
Catholic Cardinals prayed on Sunday for spiritual guidance ahead of a
closed-door conclave to choose a new pope to lead the Church at one of
the most difficult periods in its history.
Cardinals will hold a final pre-conclave meeting on Monday to discuss the state of their Church, left reeling by the abdication last month of Pope Benedict and struggling to deal with a string of sexual abuse and corruption scandals.
The 115 cardinals who will take part in the secret ballots,
which start on March 12, fanned out around Rome on Sunday to hold
myriad Masses, either in the quiet of private chapels or in the grandeur
of Rome’s great cathedrals and basilicas.
Each cardinal is
traditionally assigned to a church in the Italian capital and
congregations swelled in parishes visited by those considered the most
likely papal contenders—such as Cardinal Odilo Pedro Scherer of Sao
Paulo, Brazil.
“We’re all preparing
for the conclave because we need to make the right decision to decide
who is going to be the new pope,” Scherer told a small Baroque church in
the heart of Rome, crammed with well-wishers.
He was later driven
away in a minivan with darkened windows, declining to speak to the
waiting hoards of reporters—a taste of the pressures to come if he
should become the first non-European to be elected pope in some 1,300
years.
Just up the road,
another non-European touted as a possible candidate, U.S. Cardinal Sean
O’Malley, also received star treatment as he arrived for Mass in ornate
vestments.
“I say sincerely that
we hope this is your last visit as cardinal,” said parish priest father
Rocco Visca, prompting loud applause and cheers from the well-heeled
congregation.
A coach load of
faithful from northern Italy travelled down to Rome to hear Milan’s
cardinal, Angelo Scola, give a sermon at the monumental Santi Apostoli
church.
“Let us pray that the
Holy Spirit gives the Church a man who can lead her in the footsteps of
the great pontiffs of the past 150 years,” said Scola, seen as the
leading Italian candidate.
Like fellow cardinals, he appeared eager not to draw too much attention to himself and exited quietly via a back door.
Some cardinals, such
as Manila’s Luis Antonio Tagle, who is considered a long-shot because of
his relatively young age, 55, kept an even lower profile, mostly
staying inside the walls of seminaries or other religious institutions.
Open canvassing is
frowned upon in the run-up to the conclave, with prelates aware of the
Rome saying “he who enters the conclave a pope comes out a cardinal”.
Vatican spokesman
Father Federico Lombardi said the so-called princes of the church had
been in constant contact in recent days and had reached initial
conclusions.
“They therefore feel ready to confront the decisive step of electing a new pope,” he told Vatican Radio.
The 115 cardinal
electors under the age of 80 will enter the Sistine Chapel on Tuesday
afternoon and hold one vote that evening. They will vote up to four
times day thereafter until one of their number receives a two-thirds
majority, or 77 votes.
If a pope is not
elected in two or three days it means that cardinals are probably
severely divided and might have to turn to a dark horse candidate to
find consensus.
No conclave has lasted
than more than five days in the past century. Pope Benedict was elected
within barely 24 hours in 2005 after just four rounds of voting. But
this time, no clear favourites have emerged to take the helm of the
troubled Church.
Apart from Scola,
Scherer and O’Malley, other potential candidates most mentioned are
Canada’s Marc Ouellet, U.S. cardinal Timothy Dolan and Argentina’s
Leonardo Sandri.
It was unclear how
much the geographical distribution of the cardinals would weigh. Sixty
cardinals come from Europe, including 28 Italians, while there are 19
from Latin America, 14 North Americans, 11 Africans, 10 Asians and one
from Oceania.
The Italians held the papacy for 455 years before the 1978 election of Polish-born Pope John Paul.
Many of the Italian
cardinals work within the Vatican bureaucracy, which has come under
heavy criticism in recent years because of infighting and perceived
incompetence.
Some Italian
newspapers said many of the Italian prelates were rallying around
Scherer, while many outsiders favoured Scola, believing he had the clout
and knowledge needed to revitalise and reform the creaking Vatican
government.
