Will conclave’s choice ‘unite the world’?
Editor’s notes from Rome: Will conclave’s choice ‘unite the world’?
After days of closed-door meetings and nonstop media coverage of their views, backgrounds, and connections, the cardinals who will elect the next pope looked remarkably human as they processed into St. Peter’s Basilica on Wednesday, wearing either nervous smiles or solemn frowns.
The May 7 Mass “Pro Eligendo Romano Pontifice” (“For the Election of the Roman Pontiff”) was held just a few hours before the conclave’s 133 cardinal electors were to cast their first votes in the Sistine Chapel Wednesday evening. If the weight of the moment hadn’t landed on their shoulders by then, it probably did during the homily from Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, dean of the College of Cardinals.
“This is a human act for which every personal consideration must be set aside, keeping in mind and heart only the God of Jesus Christ and the good of the Church and of humanity,” said Re, who at 92 is too old to participate in the conclave itself.