Vatican announced on Monday (April 28) that the cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church will hold a secret meeting on May 7 to elect the new leader of the global church. The date was decided during a closed-door meeting of cardinals in Vatican, marking the first meeting since the funeral of Pope Francis last Saturday.
About 135 cardinals under the age of 80 from around the world will be eligible to participate in this secret meeting and decide who will be the next leader of the Catholic Church, which has 1.4 billion followers worldwide. The location of the secret meeting, the 16th-century Sistine Chapel, was closed to visitors on Monday for preparations.
Previous secret meetings held in 2005 and 2013 lasted only two days each, but Cardinal Anders Arborelius of Sweden suggested that the upcoming meeting may last longer due to many cardinals appointed by Pope Francis having never met each other before. Vatican considered starting the secret meeting on May 6, but delaying it by a day will allow the cardinals more time for general discussions before the important votes.
The average duration of the past 10 secret meetings has been three days.
Pope Francis passed away on April 21 at the age of 88, serving as pontiff since 2013. His funeral took place last Saturday (April 26), with a procession through Rome to his burial place at the Basilica of Saint Mary Major, attended by an estimated over 400,000 people.
Cardinal Walter Kasper of Germany, aged 92, will not attend the meeting, stating that many mourners came to pay respects to Francis, “I firmly believe that we must continue along the path set by Francis.”
As the first pope from Latin America, Pope Francis often prioritized appointing cardinals from places like Myanmar, Haiti, and Rwanda that had not previously had cardinals, actively opening up new dialogue spaces for liberal church, allowing debates on appointing female clergy and engaging with LGBTQ Catholics.
Conservative cardinals are expected to oppose these moves and seek a pope who reaffirms tradition.
(This article referenced Reuters reporting)