The Cardinals concluded a meeting before the Conclub at the Vatican, and sought to identify a new pope who could follow Pope Francis, who passed away on April 21 at the age of 88.
133 cardinal electors from 70 countries seem to be fundamentally united by insisting that their previous questions are not so much, whether the Catholic Church would be the first Asian church or the African pope, or whether he was conservative or progressive.
Rather, they say their main job is to find a pope who can become both pastors and teachers, and to find someone who can unite the church and preach peace.
“We need a Superman!” said William Sen Chai Go Cardinal, 67-year-old archbishop of Singapore.
It’s a big task given the sexual abuse and financial scandals that have violated the reputation and secular trends of churches in many parts of the world that have alienated people from organized religions.
On top of that, the dire financial situation of the sacred Sea and the often dysfunctional bureaucracy and the work of becoming a 21st century pope seems difficult.
Of the 133 cardinals to vote, Pope Francis nominated 108 of them, but there is an element of uncertainty about the election as many of them didn’t know each other last week.
This means they didn’t have time to establish the best person to lead a powerful church of 1.4 billion.
Cardinals held the final day of the meeting in front of the Con Club on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Pope Francis’ ring and his official seal were destroyed in one of the final formal rituals regarding the transition of the next bishop of his bishop.
The Cardinals will begin the process of selecting a new Pope when Conclave begins at Sistine Chapel on Wednesday afternoon and the Cardinals make their first vote.
Assuming the candidate doesn’t secure the required two-thirds majority, or 89 votes, the Cardinals will retire and return on Thursday.
They will have two votes in the morning, then two votes in the afternoon, and the winner will be found.
Asked what the priorities of cardiac electors are, Go told reporters that the issue of the top must be spreading the Catholic faith and “connecting the church to today’s age: how to reach out to young people, how to show a face of love, joy and hope.”
The future prince
But beyond that, there are real-world geopolitical concerns to consider.
The Catholic Church is growing in Africa and Asia, growing with a number of baptized loyalty and professions to the religious order of women.
But it has traditionally reduced in Catholic European bases, with empty churches and faithful people officially leaving the church in places like Germany, where many have cited abuse scandals.
“Asia is ripe for evangelization and occupational harvest,” said the Philippine Cardinal Cardinal, who studied at the seminary along with Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, was the first Asian Pope.
But whether the incoming pope should reflect the new face of the Catholic Church and inspire faithful people in parts of the world where growth momentum is already underway is one of the questions Cardinals will inevitably address during the Conclave.
Pope Francis was the first Latin American pope, and the region still counts most of the world’s Catholics.
India’s Cardinal Oswald Gracias, retired archbishop of Mumbai, believes that the church needs to become more Asian, cultural and spiritual.
“The world’s center of gravity is shifting towards Asia,” he said. “The Asian Church has a lot to give to the world.”
At 80, Gracias is not allowed to join the Conclave, but India has four cardiac elect turrets, with 23 people across Asia, making it the second largest voting block after Europe, with 53.
One of the major geopolitical issues facing Cardinals is China, with an estimated 12 million Catholics living there.
Under Pope Francis, the Vatican signed a controversial agreement governing the appointment of the bishop in 2018. The bishop’s appointment was accused of the sold-out of Catholics in underground China who remained loyal to Rome during decades of communist persecution.
The Vatican defended that agreement as the best deal that could be reached, but it remains to be seen whether Pope Francis’ successor will respect the policy.
African churches
Vatican statistics show that Catholics make up 3.3% of the Asian population, but their numbers are increasing, especially in the seminary perspective, as in Africa, where Catholics make up about 20% of the population.
Cardinal Fridrin Ambongo Beschung, Archbishop of Kinshasa, and another cardinal, who regularly featured on the list of possible popes, said he was in Rome to elect the Pope for all Catholics in the world.
“I’m not here for the Congo, I’m not here for Africa. I’m here for a universal church. That’s the universal church that’s our concern,” he told reporters.
“When we’re done, I’ll go back to Kinshasa and go back to the Archbishop of Kinshasa’s hat, and the struggle will continue.”
