Post date: Mar 04, 2013 6:10:16 PM
Cardinals return for second pre-conclave meeting.
VATICAN (MARCH 4, 2013) (REUTERS) - Roman Catholic cardinals filed into the Vatican on Monday (March 4) for an afternoon session of preliminary meetings to sketch an identikit for the next pope and ponder who among them might be best to lead a church beset by crises.
They arrived on foot and by private car, taxi and minibus at the gates of the Vatican for gatherings known as general congregations, closed-door meetings in which they will get to know each other and decide when to start a conclave to choose a man to lead the 1.2 billion member Church.The Vatican appears to be aiming to have a new pope elected next week and officially installed several days later so he can preside over the Holy Week ceremonies starting with Palm Sunday on March 24 and culminating in Easter the following Sunday.
Pope Benedict left the Church in a state of shock when he announced last month that he would be the first pontiff in 600 years to resign instead of dying as pope. He formally stepped down on Thursday, leaving the papacy vacant.
High on the agenda at the general congregations will be the daunting challenges that will face the next pontiff, including the sexual abuse crisis that has rocked the Church and last year's "Vatileaks" scandal which exposed corruption and rivalries in the Vatican's bureaucracy.
The cardinals, numbering about 150, are expected to hold one or two meetings a day. The Vatican seems keen to have only a week of preliminary talks so the 115 "cardinal electors" aged under 80 can enter the Sistine Chapel for the conclave next week. The exact date for its start has not been decided.
"It is an atmosphere of prayer and reflection, serene above all and more than anything, with a lot of trust because we are not alone, the Church is with us and all the people of good will, who can see that our job is not easy but understand that we need to do our best, all of us," Czech cardinal Miroslav Vlk said as he arrived for the afternoon session.
Cardinals expect to be briefed on a secret report to the pope on the problems highlighted by the Vatileaks scandal, when documents which alleged corruption in the Vatican and infighting over the running of its bank were leaked to the media.
The preliminary meetings also give cardinals the chance to size up potential candidates by watching them closely in the debates and checking discreetly with other cardinals about their qualifications or any skeletons in their closets.
Cardinals never reveal publicly who they prefer but drop hints in interviews by discussing the identikit for their ideal candidate. The most frequently mentioned quality here is an ability to communicate the Catholic faith convincingly.
Most cardinals say the new pope could come from outside Europe, but it is not clear if the conclave, which has a slight majority of European cardinals, will break the long-standing tradition of choosing men only from the continent.
No front-runner stands out but leading candidates include Peter Turkson of Ghana,Leonardo Sandri of Argentina, Austrian Christoph Schoenborn, Brazil's Odilo Scherer, Canadian Marc Ouellet and Angelo Scola from Italy.