Beginning now and continuing through the election of the next pope, Commonweal editors will be rounding up stories of interest from various sources—general updates from the Vatican, emerging stories, anecdotes, tidbits, profiles, and "pro-and-con" lists for different papabili. Be sure to check back here for the latest out of Rome. —The Editors
Wednesday Afternoon, April 29
Papal campaigns are generally frowned upon, if not outright discouraged, but politicking is inevitable during any election. The Telegraph describes cardinals, eager to get a jump on the conclave, already laying the groundwork for the papal election in pizza parlors in the Borgo, the village-like quarter outside Vatican City.
Calling these meetings “gnocchi negotiations” and “tagliatelle talks,” reporter Nick Squires puts tongue firmly in cheek before setting the scene: “One is partial to grilled calamari, another cannot resist spaghetti with seafood and a third confesses to a weakness for gelato.” Squires notes that the exchange of opinions, voting strategy, and good old-fashioned gossip shared in this al fresco setting will ultimately prove crucial once the conclave begins.
Perhaps.
We suppose there are worse ways to select the next pope, like measuring a cardinal’s vertical leap and forty-yard sprint speed, as the Onion “reported” occurred at the Vatican’s Papal Combine. New York cardinal Timothy Dolan, the president’s second choice for pope, distinguished himself at the four-day invitation-only event, with a three-foot vertical leap and basilica agility time of 10.8 seconds.
NCR’s Michael Sean Winters is (rightly) more concerned with the most pressing question cardinals are asking themselves in advance of the conclave: What does the church need? “More than anything,” Winters argues, “it needs a pastor like Francis who is committed to the synodal process as a means, the means, of keeping the balance between aggiornamento and ressourcement. There is no other recipe.”
During today’s General Congregation, the seventh so far, cardinals affirmed the voting status of all 133 electors participating in the conclave. Though the apostolic constitution only allows 120 voters, the cardinals noted Pope Francis’s previous dispensation of that voting limit. They declared, “the Cardinals exceeding the set limit have acquired, in accordance with paragraph 36 of the same Apostolic Constitution, the right to elect the Roman Pontiff, from the moment of their creation and publication.”
How they vote is entirely up to them.
We conclude today’s coverage with rock icon and National Book Award-winning writer Patti Smith’s reflection on Pope Francis. After learning of his death on Easter Monday, she composed a poem for him and posted it on social media. Introducing the poem, she wrote, “Last night, before falling asleep, I reflected on the past twelve years with Pope Francis. Although I am not Catholic, I was drawn to his gentle, open, and steadfast sense of humanity. I felt safer knowing he was among us, doing his best to follow and preach the teachings of Christ. It is fitting that his final words to the public were strongly centered on peace. May he ascend to a loving place, visited by the doves of the air.”
Reached by phone in Japan, Smith opened up to Vatican News about her relationship with Francis, whom she met in 2013 and performed for in 2014. Her song “These Are the Words” appeared in Pope Francis: A Man of His Word, Wim Wenders’s documentary about the pope. You can listen to Smith’s interview here. And be sure to check out senior editor Matthew Boudway’s 2018 interview with Wenders here.
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Wednesday Morning, April 29
Earlier this month, Commonweal contributing writer Massimo Faggioli outlined the stakes of the upcoming conclave, which he described as “a test for the institutional Church in an age of crisis of institutions.”
Fortunately, one of the Church’s first decisions following the burial of Pope Francis was decided with little controversy. The College of Cardinals announced the conclave to elect the 267th pope will officially begin on May 7, sixteen days after Francis’s death and only one day later than regulations allow, per the rules laid out in the Apostolic Constitution Universi Dominici Gregis
The extra day gives cardinals more time to get to know one another—a reasonable decision under normal circumstances. And a particularly wise one given the fact that the college’s 135 eligible electors hail from 71 different countries and the 108 electors appointed by Francis will be participating in their first conclave.
Archbishop Vincent Nichols, leader of the approximately six million Catholics in England and Wales, told the London Times that the cardinals asked the Vatican to issue name tags. “It was mentioned that a lot of people don’t know each other,” Nichols said. “After a request, we will also have name badges stating where we are from.”
Christopher White at NCR wrote about Japan's Cardinal Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi and a number of other cardinals taking and posting selfies, a popular trend emerging out of what at least one journalist is calling “the first conclave of the selfie generation.” As one editor here quipped, the pre-conclave congregations scheduled between now and May 7 aren’t dissimilar to freshmen orientation at local colleges and universities.
Two cardinals we know will not be participating in the conclave are Antonio Cañizares Llovera, former archbishop of Valencia, and Angelo Becciu, Francis's former chief of staff and former head of the Vatican's Dicastery for the Causes of Saints. Llovera is unable to participate because of health reasons. Becciu is a different story. He has previously forfeited his “rights connected to the cardinalate”—including the privilege of voting in the conclave—after he was accused of embezzlement in 2020. A Vatican court found him guilty in 2023, but Becciu’s appeal was under review when Francis died. Though Becciu expressed his intention to participate in the conclave, he announced on Tuesday that he would stay away. “I have decided to obey—as I have always done—the will of Pope Francis not to enter the conclave, while remaining convinced of my innocence,” he said in a statement.
Meanwhile, in preparation for the conclave, a group of twenty cardinals delivered addresses on Monday about the future of the Church and the problems it faces, according to the Holy See Press office.The cardinals offered reflections shaped by the perspectives of their continents and regions of origin, as well as the Church’s possible responses to specific problems.
Also on Monday, three cardinals were chosen by lottery to assist Cardinal Kevin Farrell, the Irish-born American bishop, who is currently overseeing the Vatican during the papal interregnum. Among them was Luis Antonio Tagle, pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization at the Vatican. Known as the “Asian Pope Francis,” Tagle is widely considered one of the conclave’s papabili.
But, as the saying goes, “He who enters the conclave as pope leaves it as cardinal”—and we’re still at least a week away from finding out who will succeed Francis’s position in the chair of St. Peter.
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