New Pope: Cardinals hold ninth meeting ahead of vote

Cardinals

The cardinals of the Catholic Church held their ninth in a series of near-daily meetings at the Vatican on Saturday ahead of the election of a new pope.

The closed-door “general congregations” allow them to discuss the challenges the successor to Pope Francis will face before they are locked into the Sistine Chapel on Wednesday for the vote.

Walking through crowds of pilgrims and journalists for the morning meeting, the so-called “Princes of the Church” gave little away — not even speculating how long the conclave would last.

“We do not know, we just wait for the Lord to tell us,” said Cardinal William Seng Chye Goh, Archbishop of Singapore, seen as one of the more conservative prelates.

The cardinals were called to Rome from around the world after the death on April 21 of Francis, an energetic reformer from Argentina who led the Catholic Church for 12 years.

According to Vatican press director Matteo Bruni, 177 cardinals, including 127 aged under 80 and thus eligible to vote in the conclave, attended Saturday’s meeting.

On Wednesday, 133 cardinal electors will enter the Sistine Chapel and not leave until they have — after a series of secret ballots — given a two-thirds majority to Francis’s successor. Punch