Cardinals begin final talks ahead of conclave to elect next pope

(NewsNation) — Cardinals continued to measurement priorities for the aboriginal of the Catholic Church connected Tuesday arsenic faithful astir the satellite await Wednesday's conclave and the quality of achromatic fume from the Sistine Chapel chimney — the accepted awesome that a caller pope has been elected.

Conclaves typically span respective days, with aggregate rounds of voting, earlier a campaigner secures the indispensable two-thirds bulk to go pope.

Here’s the docket for the week arsenic the Cardinals enactment toward their decision:

On Monday, cardinals held 2 rounds of meetings, addressing respective issues, including divisions wrong the Church.

A last circular of discussions volition beryllium held Tuesday, with the archetypal authoritative ballot expected Wednesday.

If nary campaigner achieves the two-thirds threshold, 4 votes volition beryllium held each time starting Thursday. After 3 days of voting, a intermission volition beryllium taken for supplication and reflection. If 33 rounds walk without a consensus, a runoff betwixt the apical 2 candidates volition instrumentality place.

According to the Vatican, 180 cardinals, including 132 electors, participated successful Monday’s meeting. A 133rd elector is contiguous successful Rome but did not attend. Two cardinals, 1 from Spain and different from Kenya, volition not enactment successful the conclave owed to wellness issues.

One of the cardinal topics raised Monday was the “strong concern” implicit divisions wrong the Church, a Vatican spokesperson told Reuters. This whitethorn notation to contentious issues specified arsenic Pope Francis’ determination to licence blessings for same-sex couples and to initiate discussions astir the relation of women successful the Church.

Since the time aft Francis’ death, the cardinals person been gathering astir regular to bespeak connected the absorption of the 1.4 billion-member Catholic Church, with information gradually increasing.

During the conclave, the cardinals are housed successful 2 Vatican impermanent houses and are sequestered from extracurricular connection until a caller pope is chosen.

Reuters contributed to this report.