Papal Conclave to Open Tuesday

By Nicole Winfield
Detroit News
March 8, 2013

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130308/LIFESTYLE04/303080396/Vatican-Cardinals-set-Tuesday-start-date-conclave?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|p

Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, left, joins other cardinals as he arrives for a meeting at the Vatican, Friday, March 8, 2013. (Alessandra Tarantino / Associated Press)

Cardinals will begin meeting Tuesday at the Vatican to elect a new pope to lead the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics, following days of discussions about the challenges and problems facing the church.

Kishore Jayabalan, the Rome-based analyst for the Acton Institute, a Grand Rapids-based think thank for religious freedom, said the date of the start of the papal conclave was announced by the Holy See Friday.

"There will be a Mass pro eligendo Romano Pontifice (for the election of the Roman Pontiff) Tuesday morning in St. Peter's Basilica with the conclave starting in the afternoon," Jayabalan said in an interview with The Detroit News.

Jayabalan said there are about 4,000 members of the press gathered in Rome for the election of a new pontiff.

"We'll have real news with a new pope soon," he said.

In the past 100 years, no conclave has lasted longer than five days.

Tuesday will begin with a morning Mass in St. Peter's Basilica, followed by the first ballot in the afternoon. A two-thirds majority — 77 of the 115 eligible cardinals who will participate is needed to elect a pope.

Catholics around the world have been awaiting word of when the conclave would begin. Holy Week begins March 24 and many faithful are hoping for a new spiritual leader by then.

Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet's name continues to surface as a frontrunner for pope.

He is a native of Quebec and has served in Montreal and Latin America. Other frontrunners include cardinals from Ghana and Nigeria.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York who is considered a possible papal contender, said in a blog post today that most of the discussions in the closed-door meetings covered preaching and teaching the Catholic faith, tending to Catholic schools and hospitals, protecting families and the unborn and supporting priests.

"Those are the 'big issues,'" he wrote. "You may find that hard to believe, since the 'word on the street' is that all we talk about is corruption in the Vatican, sexual abuse, money. Do these topics come up? Yes! Do they dominate? No!"

Associated Press contributed.

Contact: bwilliams@detroitnews.com