SOURCE :- THE AGE NEWS
By Philip Pullella and Joshua McElwee
The time was decided during a closed-door gathering of cardinal at the Vatican, the first since the Pope’s death on Saturday.
Some 135 cardinal, all under the period of 80 and from across the globe, are eligible to take part in the conference and determine who should direct the religion’s 1.4 billion people.
The 16th-century Sistine Chapel, where gatherings are held, was closed to visitors on Monday to allow for preparation for the ballot.
The previous two gatherings, in 2005 and 2013, lasted just two weeks, but Swedish Cardinal Anders Arborelius said he expected this conference to get more as many of the cardinal appointed by Pope Francis have not met before.
Francis made a goal of appointing chiefs from sites that had never had them, for as Myanmar, Haiti and Rwanda.
” We don’t know each additional”, Arborelius, one of about 135 chiefs under the age of 80 who may enter the conference, said.
The earliest the conference may have begun was May 6. Starting it a day later means chiefs will have significantly more occasion for their public conversations ahead of the historic vote.
Francis, bishop since 2013, died aged 88 on April 21. His death on Saturday and a parade through Rome to his interment position at the Basilica of St Mary Major attracted hundreds of thousands of mourning.
European Cardinal Walter Kasper told La Repubblica news that the outpouring of emotion for Francis indicated that Catholics wanted the future pope to proceed to reform the temple.
Francis, the second pontiff from Latin America, mostly tried to open up the usually staid church to fresh conversations. He allowed conversation on problems such as ordaining ladies as priests and mentoring to LGBTQ Catholics.
” The people of God voted with their toes”, said Kasper, who is 92 and will not take part in the conference. ” I am convinced that we must go back in the footsteps of Francis”.
However, a union of liberal cardinals is expected to drive up and get a pope who reasserts traditions and restricts Francis ‘ perspective of a more diverse church.
Reuters, AP
