Final preparations, discussions underway before conclave begins

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — As members of the College of Cardinals met May 5, all 133 cardinals who plan to enter the conclave to elect a new pope had arrived in Rome, the Vatican press office said.

However, only 132 of them participated in the morning general congregation, a meeting that gives all the cardinals — those under the age of 80 and eligible to enter a conclave as well as those over 80 — a chance to discuss priorities, challenges facing the church and the qualities needed in the next pope.

The cardinals voted to meet again the afternoon of May 5 and the morning of May 6 because so many cardinals were on the waiting list to speak.

Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office, said 26 cardinals spoke at the morning session May 5. The topics, he said, included canon law; the importance of Catholic charities “in advocating for the poor”; and the need for a pope who “should be a person present and close, a door of access to communion, to unity in a world where the world order is in crisis, a pastor, a shepherd close to the people.”

They also spoke about evangelization, the challenges of climate change and war, and “they spoke with concern about divisions within the church,” Bruni said. Others spoke of a lack of vocations to priesthood and religious life in some regions, and the importance of the family.

U.S. Cardinal Kevin J. Farrell, who as chamberlain of the Holy Roman Church is in charge of dealing with practical matters, drew lots May 3 to assign the cardinals their rooms for the conclave, which begins May 7, Bruni said.

Some of the cardinals will stay in the Domus Sanctae Marthae, the guesthouse St. John Paul II had built precisely to house cardinals in a conclave. It ended up being where Pope Francis chose to live after he was elected in 2013.

Because Pope Francis’ rooms were sealed with his death and because the late pope named so many cardinals, some of them are staying next door at the “old Santa Marta,” which shares a courtyard with the guesthouse.

Bruni said he did not know how many of the cardinals would be at the guesthouse and how many would be next door.

The dozens of priests and bishops who live at the Domus Sanctae Marthae were asked to leave by April 30, one priest told Catholic News Service. “I had to free up the bedroom, bathroom and desk in my study. I didn’t have to pack up everything in my study, but what I leave gets sealed in the shelves and closets there by the gendarmerie after inspection.”

“Once the rooms are certified, they are locked, and each cardinal has to break the seal as he enters and takes possession,” the priest said.

The cardinals were informed at the general congregation that they could move into the guesthouse between the evening of May 6 and the morning of May 7 before the Mass “Pro Eligendo Romano Pontifice” (“for the election of the Roman Pontiff”). They are scheduled to process into the Sistine Chapel the afternoon of May 7 and, probably, cast their first votes.

In the early evening of May 5, two archbishops and dozens of priests and laypeople, both men and women, were to swear an oath of secrecy about anything and everything having to do with the conclave.

Bruni said he did not know the exact number of people directly assisting the cardinals and therefore required to swear the oath, but they included: Archbishop Ilson Montanari, secretary of the College of Cardinals; Archbishop Diego Ravelli, master of liturgical ceremonies; and a priest chosen by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who is presiding over the conclave, “to assist him in his office.”

Also taking the oath are sacristans, priests who will be available to hear the cardinals’ confessions, doctors, nurses, elevator operators, technical services staff, the colonel and major of the Pontifical Swiss Guard, as well as the director of security services for Vatican City State and some of his assistants.

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