Online Reporter
VATICAN. —Around 133 “Princes of the Church” will meet TODAY to start the process of electing from among their number a successor to Pope Francis, who died on April 21 aged 88.
At issue is whether the new pontiff will follow the popular Argentine’s progressive line, or will the Holy See pivot to a more conservative traditionalist?
Francis ran the Church for 12 years and appointed 80 percent of the cardinal electors.
Some experts say the progressive camp will have the edge, seeking a pope that will follow in Francis’s footsteps and energise his supporters.
But no one can predict how voting will go once the cardinals are shut inside the Sistine Chapel and begin an open-ended series of votes seeking a two-thirds majority for one of their number.
Canadian priest Justin Pulikunnel did not hide his frustration at the direction Francis tried to take the Church, seeking a return to more traditional leadership.
“Well, I hope and I pray that the new pope will kind of be a source of unity in the Church and kind of calm the waters down after almost a dozen years of destabilisation and ambiguity,” he said.
But others like Valeria Sereni, a 30-year-old Italian, expressed hope that the new pope would follow in Francis’s more open spirit on issues of sexuality, human rights and the environment.
“Francis has opened a new path and someone has to carry it on,” she said.
“We’ll be very fortunate if we find somebody as good as the previous one,” agreed 72-year-old Wayne Gosper from Australia, sounding a note of caution that secular politics might influence the cardinals’ choice.
“The world is turning right wing, right? And we lost a left-wing pope,” he said.
From Europe, Italian cardinals Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, and Pietro Parolin, secretary of state under Francis, are some of the best known “papabili”, or potential popes.
But many more names have been discussed, and just like when Francis— then an Argentinian known as Jorge Bergoglio —was picked in 2013, a surprise candidate could emerge.
Vatican affairs specialist Marco Politi told AFP that the conclave could be “the most spectacular in 50 years”. — France24
Mathew Masinge