Posted on 04/17/2005 3:52:49 PM PDT by NYer
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Roman Catholic cardinals started to move into sequestered lodgings Sunday ahead of a momentousconclave to elect the successor to Pope John Paul II.
The 115 eligible cardinals will enter the secretive conclave in the Sistine Chapel Monday with no clear favorite to take over the reins of the 1.1 billion-member Church.
Some of the red-hatted "princes of the church" held publicMasses around a rainswept Rome Sunday, refusing to speculate on the vote and underlining the spiritual nature of their quest.
"People think that we are going to vote like in an election. But this is something completely different. We are going to listen to the Lord and listen to the Holy Spirit,"said Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga of Honduras.
In the run-up to the historic vote, much media speculation has centered on John Paul's closest aide and arch-ideologue Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, suggesting that the German prelate might head initial balloting.
But many Vatican watchers doubt whether such a figure,whose conservative dogma has polarized the Roman Catholic world, would be able to gain the two-thirds majority needed to become the 264th successor to the first pope, St. Peter.
That could leave the field open to a less divisive candidate who could bridge the numerous factions that have risen up within the largest religious organization in theworld.
The cardinals will hold up to four ballots a day until they reach the necessary majority.
Of the eight 20th century conclaves, none took longer than five days, and two of them were completed on the second day. It took just eight ballots over three days to choose the relatively unknown Karol Wojtyla of Poland as Pope John Paul in1978.
Whereas in past conclaves, the elderly cardinals were forced to live in cramped cells inside a sealed-off SistineChapel, this time around they will sleep in the plush Santa Marta residence, built within the Vatican's manicured gardens.
The cardinals will dine together in the Santa Marta on Sunday night and hold a public Mass Monday morning in St. Peter's Basillica. At 4:30 p.m. (10:30 a.m. EDT) they will file into the Sistine Chapel to start their deliberations.
In the build-up to the vote, some 15 cardinals have been promoted in the press as potential popes, including Italian cardinals Dionigi Tettamanzi and Angelo Scola, Brazil's ClaudioHummes, Nigeria's Francis Arinze and the Honduran Maradiaga.
Among the major issues facing the Church are the growing spiritual poverty of Europe, the material poverty of the third world and the centralized workings of the Vatican bureaucracy.
The cardinals themselves have taken an unusual vow of media silence ahead of the conclave, adding to a sense of uncertainty and intrigue within the male-dominated Church hierarchy.
"It's very hard to know what's going on in the church, we feel that it's a different world from where we are," Sister Emanuel, who works in Australia and is on a retreat in Rome, said as she visited John Paul II's tomb in St. Peter's.
The conclave will be like no other election in the world.
There will be no press briefings after the ballots, no spin doctors promoting their candidates, just a simple puff of smoke from the Sistine chimney -- black smoke for an inconclusive vote and white smoke when a new pope is chosen.
In preparation for an eventual decision, Vatican workershave put up red curtains on the balcony of St Peter's where the new pope will make his first appearance to the world.
In the hours leading to Monday's lock-up, leading Catholics made final public appeals to the cardinals about the sort of pope they wanted to see step onto the balcony.
"Dear brothers, chose someone who will guarantee the freedom and openness of the Church," theologian Hans Kueng, one of the Church's most prominent liberal dissenters, said in anarticle in La Stampa newspaper.
"Cardinals Gather Ahead of Conclave to Elect Pope (NO Clear Favorite!) "
Ratz!
Argh, all I hear on the radio (no TV, thank the Lord) is "don't forget the women" and "the Church must address the women issues" -- GAG. I am a woman and I like the Catholic Church just as it is, thank you.
The Church is not a democracy. It's not media driven. It doesn't have to explain to everyone why certain things are certain ways. They just are. If you don't like it, move on to something you do like. What do you think Luther and Henry the 8th did? "Go and do likewise."
And ... it was only seven days. We know that Pentecost 50 days from the Passover, and that He spent three days in the Earth.
On top of that, the biblical record states that He spent 40 days with the Apostles before His ascension. That means that they spent 7 days (50 minus 43) praying at the most.
And there is a distinct difference between voting for a new leader (which totally requires man's doing), and praying for the Promise of the Father to appear. If it were the Holy Spirit, why does He have such a difficult time agreeing with Himself?
"I hope it will be an Italian pope. We haven't had one in the lat 26 years."
That's fine , but if I see Dick Vitale come running out of the Vatican yelling "It's the Italian, baby!!!", I may have to stop attending Sunday mass.... :)
Translation: Dear Brothers, chose someone who will worship me as I do.
I don't mind a schism so long as it is lopping off the liberal dead weight. Any guy who can piss off 70 Georgetown professors at once is a good guy in my book.
For factual information, go to the following thread.
ROFLMAO!
Holy Romans, Batman!
bttt
"Any guy who can piss off 70 Georgetown professors at once is a good guy in my book."
I'm matriculating at Georgetown in the Fall.
I'm gonna have to wear an Arinze T-shirt around to ward off the bad people. And I know I will have to go off campus for Mass, confession and the like.
That's it!!!...we really NEED a Zogby poll on this papal election.
But why Duke and not Notre Dame?
bc Dick Vitale is obsessed with DUKE, that is what makes it so hilarious.
I am not a basketball fan (baseball is my game), so the only contact I really have with the sport is the lunacy that ensues around here every year while all the guys in the office draw up their "brackets" and place their bets.
Everywhere I have ever worked, there's been a huge office pool and scribbled charts discarded everywhere . . . so this is funny even for those of us who are just watching the passing show . . .
my husband and son are huge Big East fans and they can't STAND DUKE VITALE, as they call him! so i literally died laughing while forwarding it to xshub that even when it comes to picking the POPE, dick thinks DUKE has a chance!!
Now that IS funny. Layers on layers. Whoever drew this chart up must know the game inside out.
It is not our place to question the Holy Spirit. If so, how come my prayers to win the lottery haven't been answered yet? I learned in my catechism classes decades ago that all prayers are answered in God's time, not ours. And sometimes we don't understand the answers we are given.
I thought John Kerry held the title for "Most Mind Numbing Liberal Catholic."
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