Cardinals Enter Vatican for Historic Vote

Herald Sun
March 11, 2013

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/cardinals-wind-up-talks-before-pope-vote/story-e6frf7k6-1226595195573

Catholic cardinals have wound up their final day of talks ahead of a vote to elect a new pope. AAP

The 115 cardinal electors will live inside the Vatican walls completely cut off from the outside world until they have made their choice.

In a series of centuries-old rituals that started on Tuesday morning, cardinals will be sworn in with a solemn oath that threatens instant excommunication for anyone who leaks details of the voting.

Dozens of Vatican staff working on the conclave, including cooks, drivers and security guards, swore the oath on Monday.

Jamming devices have been installed to prevent bugging or communication in or out.

The prayers will begin with a special mass in St Peter's Basilica starting at 0900 GMT (2000 AEDT).

The cardinals are set to hold a first round of voting later on Tuesday - but the Vatican has already said it expects the smoke from the burning of the ballots to be black, indicating no papal selection has taken place.

Ballots on subsequent days will be burnt around 1100 GMT (2200 AEDT) after two rounds of voting in the morning and around 1800 GMT (0500 AEDT) after two rounds in the afternoon - the smoke is turned white if there is a new pope.

Catholics around the globe have been praying for the conclave, which is expected to last no more than a few days.

Among the possible candidates, three have emerged as favourites - Italy's Angelo Scola, Brazil's Odilo Scherer and Canada's Marc Ouellet, all conservatives cast in the same mould as pope emeritus Benedict XVI.

But the rumour mill has thrown up more names, including cardinals from Austria, Hungary, Mexico, the Philippines, South Africa and the United States - many of them inspiring pastoral figures in their communities.

The field is wide open, although a few key aims unite many of the cardinals after Benedict's rocky eight-year papacy - reform of the intrigue-filled Vatican bureaucracy, countering rising secularism in Europe and North America and finding new inspiration for Catholics in the way John Paul II did.

The scandal over decades of sexual abuse of children by priests - and the efforts made by senior prelates to cover up the crimes - has cast a shadow that will be an ongoing challenge for any new pope.

There have been calls for a rethink of some basic tenets such as priestly celibacy, the uniform ban on artificial contraception and even allowing women to be priests as in other Christian denominations.

"We need someone able to provide the Church with what it needs in today's world, someone who will help it open up to the world and listen to the people," said Roger Seogo, a priest from Burkina Faso in west Africa visiting the Vatican.

The tradition of holding conclaves goes back to the 13th century when cardinals were locked into the papal palace in Viterbo near Rome by a crowd of angry townspeople because they were taking too long to make their decision.

That conclave still dragged on for nearly three years but the rules have been reworked since then and the longest conclave in the past century - in 1922 - lasted five days.

Benedict's election took two days.