A week after Pope Francis’ death, the Vatican said Monday that Catholic cardinals will begin voting for a new pope on May 7.
To select a new religious leader for the 1.4 billion Catholics worldwide, so-called “Princes of the Church” under the age of 80 will gather in the Sistine Chapel.
Two days after the funeral of Francis, who passed away on April 21 at the age of 88, the date was set at an early Monday meeting of cardinals of all ages.
Only 135 of the Church’s 252 cardinals are allowed to vote in the conclave, but they were summoned back to Rome following the Argentine’s passing.
Many of them are strangers, and they come from all over the world.
However, they already met four times last week for what are known as “general congregations,” where they started to get to know one another.
There was a “beautiful, fraternal atmosphere,” according to Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti, 83, a former chairman of the Italian bishops’ conference.
He told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera that there might be some challenges because there have never been so many voters and not everyone knows one another.
The Sistine Chapel, which will host the vote beneath Michelangelo’s ceiling frescoes from the 16th century, was closed by the Vatican on Monday in order to start preparations.
There aren’t many hints as to who the cardinals might pick yet.
In an interview published on Sunday, Spanish Cardinal Jose Cobo told El Pais, “I think that if Francis has been the pope of surprises, this conclave will be too, as it is not at all predictable.”
400,000 people, including members of the royal family, world leaders, and regular pilgrims, flocked to St. Peter’s Square and beyond on Saturday for Francis’ funeral and burial.
After the “pope of the poor” chose to be buried outside the boundaries of the Vatican, over 70,000 mourners lined up in front of his marble tomb in Rome’s Santa Maria Maggiore Basilica on Sunday.
The odds of bookmakers –
Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the pope’s number two and former secretary of state under Francis, is widely regarded as the favorite to succeed him in light of the ongoing wars and diplomatic difficulties throughout the world.
He was ranked just ahead of Ghana’s Cardinal Peter Turkson and Filipino Luis Antonio Tagle, the Metropolitan Archbishop emeritus of Manila, by British bookmakers William Hill.
Cardinal Robert Sarah of Guinea, Matteo Zuppi, the Archbishop of Bologna, and Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, are next in line.
While Francis’s efforts to create a more compassionate Church earned him widespread affection and respect, some of his reforms angered the Church’s conservative wing, particularly in the United States and Africa.
Roberto Regoli, a professor of Church history and culture at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, told AFP that the cardinals would be looking “to find someone who knows how to forge greater unity”.
“We are in a period in which Catholicism is experiencing various polarisations, so I don’t imagine it will be a very, very quick conclave,” he said.
Bassetti, who is too old to participate, said however he thought it “will not be long”.
Some 80 percent of the cardinal electors were appointed by Francis — though that is no guarantee they will pick a successor in his likeness.
Most are relatively young, and for many it is their first conclave.
– ‘We need a courageous leader’ –
The vote is highly secretive and follows strict rules and ceremonial procedures. The process could take several days, or potentially longer.
There are four votes per day — two in the morning and two in the afternoon — until one candidate secures a two-thirds majority.
Fewer than half of those eligible to vote are European.
“The future pope must have a universal heart, love all the continents. We must not look at colour, at origin, but at what is proposed,” Cardinal Dieudonne Nzapalainga from the Central African Republic told the Italian newspaper Il Messaggero.
“We need a courageous leader, a bold one, capable of speaking forcefully, of holding the helm of the Church steady even in storms… offering stability in an era of great uncertainty.”
Patrizia Spotti, a 68-year-old Italian visiting Rome for the 2026 Jubilee holy year, told AFP Monday she hoped the new pontiff “will be a pope like Francis”.
It was a difficult time for Catholicism, she said.
“Churches are empty. And the Church itself has made mistakes, all the scandals with the children,” she said, referring to the widespread revelations of clerical sex abuse.
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