Cardinals arrive for discussions ahead of conclave next week

(9 Mar 2013) SHOTLIST
1. Swiss Guards moving into position
2. Italian Cardinal, Angelo Bagnasco arriving
3. US Cardinal getting off a minibus
4. US Cardinal Timothy Michael Dolan arriving
5. Media
6. Brazilian cardinals Geraldo Majella Agnelo (first to get out of car) and Odilo Pedro Scherer arriving
7. Italian Cardinals Gianfranco Ravasi (left) and Giuseppe Versaldi talking
8. Wide of more cardinals arriving
9. Cardinal Angelo Sodano getting out of car, waving
10. Wide of Asian cardinals arriving
11. Close up of African cardinal arriving
12. SOUNDBITE (Italian) Severino Poletto, Cardinal:
"You have the patience of Job, really like Job. Good morning."
13. Cardinal Severino Poletto walks towards entrance
STORYLINE
Cardinals arrived at the Sinod Hall on Saturday for the last session of congregations after the date of the Conclave was announced for Tuesday 12 March.
With the preliminaries over, Catholic cardinals are ready to get down to the real business of choosing a pope.
And even without a front-runner, there are indications they will go into the conclave on Tuesday with a good idea of their top picks.
Then it will be just a matter of agreeing on one man to lead the church and tackle its many problems.
The conclave date was set on Friday during a vote by the College of Cardinals, who have been meeting all week to discuss the church's problems and priorities, and the qualities the successor to Pope Benedict XVI must possess.
That said, there doesn't appear to be a front-runner, and the past week of deliberations has exposed sharp divisions among cardinals about some of the pressing problems facing the church, including governance within the Holy See itself.
The Vatican spokesman, the Reverend Federico Lombardi, said the pre-conclave meetings had given the cardinals a chance to discuss the profile, characteristics, qualities and talents a future pope must have.
Those closed-door deliberations, he said, provided an opportunity for discussion and information-gathering so the cardinals could go into the conclave ready to cast their ballots.
Cardinal Sean O'Malley, archbishop of Boston, agreed, noting that without this week's meetings the conclave "could drag on."
Then it's a matter of consensus-building in order to reach the two-thirds majority needed to elect a pope - a process that for the past century has taken no more than a few days.
Benedict himself was elected on the fourth round of voting in 2005, a day after the conclave began - one of the fastest papal elections in recent times.
His predecessor, John Paul II, was chosen following eight ballots over three days in 1978.
On Tuesday, the conclave will begin with a morning Mass in St. Peter's Basilica, followed by a procession into the Sistine Chapel and the first round of secret balloting in the afternoon.
If black smoke is sent snaking out of the chapel chimney to indicate there is no victor, the cardinals will retire for the day.
They return on Wednesday for two rounds of balloting in the morning and two rounds in the afternoon, a process repeated each day, with occasional breaks for reflection, until a pope emerges.


Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter:   / ap_archive  
Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​
Instagram:   / apnews  


You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...