Cardinals to convene conclave, elect new Pope

The Vatican has announced that Catholic cardinals will meet on May 7 to start voting for a new pope.

The conclave will take place in the Sistine Chapel, where the cardinals will choose a new religious leader for the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.

This decision comes a week after the death of Pope Francis, who passed away on April 21 at the age of 88.

The conclave will involve 135 cardinals under the age of 80, who will gather in the Sistine Chapel to cast their votes.

The process is highly secretive, with four votes per day – two in the morning and two in the afternoon – until one candidate secures a two-thirds majority.

Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti, a former head of the Italian bishops’ conference, noted that while there may be difficulties due to the large number of voters, he believes the conclave “will not be long”.

Bookmakers’ odds suggest that Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who served as secretary of state under Francis, is the favorite to succeed him.

Other potential candidates include Filipino Luis Antonio Tagle, Ghana’s Cardinal Peter Turkson, Matteo Zuppi, the Archbishop of Bologna, Guinea’s Cardinal Robert Sarah, and Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem.

Roberto Regoli, a professor of Church history and culture at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, said the cardinals will be looking for someone who can “forge greater unity” within the Church.

Cardinal Dieudonne Nzapalainga from the Central African Republic emphasized the need for 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, hopes the new pontiff will be “a pope like Francis”.

She noted that the Church is facing a difficult time, with empty churches and scandals surrounding clerical sex abuse.

The conclave’s outcome is uncertain, with Spanish Cardinal Jose Cobo saying, “I believe that if Francis has been the pope of surprises, this conclave will be too, as it is not at all predictable”.