The cardinals who will participate in the secret conclave to elect a new Catholic Pope began to stay in two Vatican locations on Tuesday (6), where they will be prevented from having contact with the outside world while deciding who Pope Francis should succeed.
The Conclave will begin with closed doors in the Sistine Chapel on Wednesday afternoon (7), with all cardinals under 80 and can vote for the next leader of the church of 1.4 billion members.
The dispute to succeed Francis, who died last month, is seen as open.
Although some names have been cited as possible favorites, many of the 133 cardinals who should vote for the conclave said they did not know who will be the next pontiff.
“I have no idea,” said Cardinal Robert McELROY during a visit to a parish in Rome on Monday night (5).
The conclave process is “deep and mysterious,” continued McELROY, the archbishop of Washington, DC “I can’t give any clue to who is to come.”
Some cardinals seek a new Pope who continues Francis’ initiative by a more transparent and welcoming church, while others seek deepening in more traditional roots that value doctrine.
The choice of a new leader
The conclaves usually extend for several days, with several votes made before a candidate gets the necessary three bedrooms to become Pope.
During the period, the cardinals voting will be staying in two Vatican houses and will oath to remain out of contact with anyone who does not participate in the secret vote.
Francisco had as his priority to appoint cardinals from countries that never had them before, such as Haiti, South Sudan and Myanmar.
This conclave will be the most geographically different in the two thousand years of history of the Catholic Church, with the participation of clerics from 70 countries.
Japanese Cardinal Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi told La Repubblica newspaper that many of the 23 Clerics in Asia who voted for the conclave planned to vote in a block.
He compared their strategy with that of the 53 European cardinals, known to vote based on specific countries or other personal preferences.
“We Asians are probably more unanimous in supporting one or two candidates… We’ll see which name will leave as the main candidate,” Kikuchi shared.
This content was originally published in cardinals go into full imprisonment on Tuesday (6) before the conclave on CNN Brazil.
Source: CNN Brasil
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