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General Congregations day 3: Still no date for Conclave

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Today, preparations for the election of a successor to Pope Benedict XVI. continued, but still no date announced for the conclave.

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi reported after the fourth meeting before the Conclave, that 153 Cardinals were present on Wednesday, 113 of them under the age of 80 and thus eligible to vote. Yet, the last two papal electors are to arrive in Rome until Thursday. These are Polish Cardinal Kazimierz Nycz and the Vietnamese Cardinal Jean-Baptiste Pham Minh Man. On Thursday, two General Gongregations are held in the morning and in the afternoon.

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Climate “very fraternal”

The climate at the meeting on Wednesday  was very fraternal, Lombardi told the press. The Dean of the College of Cardinals, Angelo Sodano, congratulated some Cardinals, who celebrate their birthday these days. Among them is also the German Cardinal Walter Kasper, who will celebrate his 80. birthday on Monday.

The consultations took place behind closed doors in the Synod Hall and were headed by Dean of Cardinals Sodano. Applicable duties of the Church were treated in the General Congregation. 18 Cardinals came forward to speak on Wednesday, and so far there were 51 speeches of Cardinals since the beginning of the General Congregations on Monday. Topics included the need for a new evangelization, the relations between the Vatican and the episcopates of the individual countries, as well as the profile of the new Pope, Lombardi reported.

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An insight into the Papal Conclave 2013

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The Pope election rules of the Roman Catholic Church regulate the Conclave to the smallest detail – including the nature of the ballot. Although black or white smoke are not mentioned.

“The ballots must be rectangular and must contain if possible in the upper half of the printed form the words: Eligo in Summum Pontificem, while the lower half must remain free to write the name of the selected here.” So it is written in section 65 of the Apostolic Constitution “Universi Dominici Gregis” of Pope John Paul II, the Pope’s election regulations currently in effect for the Conclave.

papal-ballotPapal voting card

But not only the nature of the ballot is regulated in detail. The Pope election rules dating back to 1996, which were changed in one point by Benedict XVI in 2007, contain some strict provisions, which go far beyond the election process itself.

The Dean of the College of Cardinals shall preside at the election, unless he is over 80 and thus no longer eligible to vote. In this case, he will be replaced by the Vice-Dean. If he is also over 80, the oldest of the highest ranking Cardinals takes over. This scenario will occur in the current conclave. Dean Angelo Sodano and Subdean Roger Etchegaray are over 80, so the 79-year-old retired Prefect of the Congregation of Bishops Giovanni Battista Re will take over the presidency of the conclave.

Room distribution by lot

During the conclave, the cardinals will reside in the premises of the Domus Sanctae Marthae, the guest house of the Vatican. The rooms are – mandatory by the electoral law – allocated by lottery. In addition to the Cardinals a few more people are involved, who need to swear under oath their ‘obligation to secrecy’. These include, among others, “two doctors for emergencies”, “some religious priests of different languages ​​for confession” and “an appropriate number” of people “for service and cleaning.”

What happens behind the doors of the Sistine Chapel, is to stay there. The Electoral Code provides a number of steps to prevent eavesdropping.

sistine-chapelSistine chapel

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