Conclave: Cardinals request divine support before choosing a pope

With a solemn mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, more than 130 cardinals from all over the world have attuned their conclave to the election of the new Pope. Cardinals also took part in the service in Rome, which may no longer be part of the votes in the Sistine chapel due to exceeding the age limit of 80 years. The conclave begins in the afternoon – strictly isolated from the outside world. Then there should be a first ballot. Nobody expects an immediate decision.

The trade fair “Pro eligendo Romano Pontefice” (“On the election of the Roman Pontifex”) was led by the dean of the Cardinal College, the Italian Giovanni Battista Re. The 91-year-old said that they had gathered to ask for the support of the Holy Spirit for the election. He warned the 133 cardinals entitled to vote – all in red – to “put all personal considerations”. Now one can “only have the God of Jesus Christ as well as the well -being of the church and humanity in mind and in the heart”.

Because of its old age, the dean is not there in the conclave. The election assembly is headed by the Cardinal, who is entitled to vote, the Italian Pietro Parolin. As Cardinal State Secretary, the 70-year-old was number two under Francis in the Vatican. Parolin is also traded as a favorite for the successor to the Argentine. However, the lists with the names of possible new popes recently became longer from day to day. In the meantime there are two dozen names – and further surprises are possible.

A two -thirds majority is required for the election for the 267th Pontifex in two millennia history, i.e. 89 votes. Many expect that there will still be a new Pope this week: since the 1960s, all the conclaves have been over after two or three days. However, Francis has appointed so many new cardinals, also from distant countries that many election men have not yet really known each other. The conclave is as large and more internationally occupied than ever.

Three German cardinals also choose with. The former prefect of the Vatican Major Congregation, Gerhard Ludwig Müller, told the German Press Agency that he had been grabbed his suitcase for “five or six days”. “You have to be prepared,” said the 77-year-old. “But of course everyone hopes that it will not take that long. Everyone wants to go home.” The cardinals Reinhard Marx, 71, from Munich and Rainer Maria Woelki, 68, from Cologne are also entitled to vote from Germany.

The church tops are housed in the guest house complex of the Vatican, the Casa Santa Marta-also sealed off the outside world. You have to hand in cell phones, smartphones and all other digital devices. In the guest house, they also spend the last hours into the Sistine chapel until the ceremonial move -in – one of the most beautiful polling stations in the world. Among Michelangelo’s ceiling paintings, they have to swear to God that they have a ban on contact and confidentiality. With the Latin words extra omnes (all out) the door closes.

After the first ballot, smoke from the chimney on the roof of the chapel is to rise again for the first time in the evening – probably around 7 p.m. In all likelihood, it will be black. This means that the cardinals have not yet agreed. The smoke is only white with a two -thirds majority. That could take. When the time comes, it will be announced a little later from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica: Habemus Papam (we have a Pope). Then the new head of the church shows the public.

Most Vatican connoisseurs expect this to be done this week. The Argentine Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who then gave himself the Pope name Francis, was elected in 2013 after a day and a half, in the fifth ballot. At the German Pope Benedict XVI. It was even faster in 2005: only four electoral courses. Benedikt then resigned as the first Pope after many centuries. He died on New Year’s Eve 2022 at the age of 95.

The lists with possible successors for Francis were recently longer from day to day. In addition to slogan, two other Italians are considered to be candidates: the archbishop of Bologna, Matteo Zupi, 69, and the patriarch of Jerusalem, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, 60th in the candidate carousel are also the Philippine Luis Antonio Tagle, 67, 67, 66, the Portuguese Tolentino de Mendonça, 59, the Hungarian Peter Erdö, 72, the Luxembourg Jean-Claude Hollerich, 66-and a few more.

According to Catholic theory of faith, the Pope is the successor to the apostle Peter and deputy of Jesus Christ on earth. He is also Bishop of Rome, Primas of Italy and head of state of the Vatican. He doesn’t have great world power. But it is a moral authority for many people. Cardinal Re said in the service after the official translation of the Vatican: “The choice of the new Pope is not only a simple change of people, but it is always the apostle Peter who returns.”