[h=3]By JOHN D. STOLL[/h]ROME—Eight years after cardinals from around the world gathered in the Sistine Chapel and picked a new pope who would continue on his predecessor's traditionalist path, the choice to succeed Pope Benedict XVI doesn't appear as clear-cut.
The 115 cardinals who begin voting here on Tuesday do so with a cross-current of priorities, geographical considerations and doctrinal positions on their minds. In choosing a new pope, these cardinals are looking for a candidate who can show sensitivity to Muslims, who has crisp communication skills and an ability to reignite interest in Catholicism in Europe and North America.
The overriding question of how the church—particularly the Roman Curia—governs tops the agenda after months of turmoil, including an embarrassing leaks scandal that exposed waste and infighting at the Vatican.
"A divide exists between the cardinals who work outside of Rome and those who work in the Curia," Father Thomas Reese, an analyst on Catholic issues, said Monday.
"There is a need for the general administration of the church to be put in good order," retired Cardinal Edward Egan said in a recent interview. He noted that over the past half-century, the central organization of the Vatican had gotten too large, inefficient and lost focus on what is happening in local parishes.
The challenges facing the 1.2-billion-member church, however, stretch far beyond Rome. Over the past century, nine pontiffs have overseen an evolution of the church beyond its traditional footholds in Europe and North America to increasing representation in Africa, Latin America and Africa.
Analysts, including Father Reese, have said this has led to the establishment of various camps among cardinals that don't always split among geographic lines. Latin American cardinals, for instance, may unite around the feeling that they are underrepresented in Rome, but still disagree about many other issues. The 11 North American cardinals, meanwhile, have a relatively cohesive group, while 28 Italians are split into factions.
The decision-making this time around appears to be off to a cohesive, albeit slow start. On Friday, a "great majority" of the cardinals agreed to start the conclave on Tuesday, the Vatican said—a date that likely represents a desire to make a selection well in advance of Holy Week this month.
In the days leading up to the conclave, more than 150 cardinals, some of whom won't participate in the election because they are older than the 80-year-old voting cutoff, gathered in Rome to discuss the state of the church. These men sat through 161 speeches on topics including the state of church finances, evangelization and the state of the Curia.
During breaks, dinners and other meetings, cardinals spent significant time over the past two weeks getting to know each other and listening about the situation around the world.
But the next step could be the toughest as "the field is so wide open that it is difficult to pick even a handful of candidates who are on a shortlist," said Salvadore Miranda, a Florida International University scholar who compiles data on the cardinals.
He said many past conclaves have begun with a pretty firm indication of what direction the College of Cardinals wanted to go, but "this time, it appears to be anyone's guess."
Angelo Scola from Italy, Peter Turkson of Ghana and Marc Ouellet from Canada are considered potential leading candidates as the conclave starts. But it is unclear if any of them—or any of the handful of cardinals from the U.S., Latin America or Asia that have been attracting interest—have a broad enough base of support, or are well enough known to gain the 77 votes, representing the two-thirds support needed to win.
The conclave is designed to take outside pressure off cardinals by sequestering them behind a wall of silence where communication with the outside world is essentially cut off, and much of the daily schedule is scripted.
Days begin, for instance, with a 6:30 a.m. breakfast, Mass at 8:15 a.m. and a first vote at 9:30. Lunch, another vote, vespers and an 8 p.m. dinner are also on the schedule.
Cardinals have been assigned rooms randomly in order to discourage the forging of blocs in living quarters. The election will begin Tuesday afternoon with one round of voting following an afternoon Mass.
Write to John D. Stoll at [email protected]
The 115 cardinals who begin voting here on Tuesday do so with a cross-current of priorities, geographical considerations and doctrinal positions on their minds. In choosing a new pope, these cardinals are looking for a candidate who can show sensitivity to Muslims, who has crisp communication skills and an ability to reignite interest in Catholicism in Europe and North America.
The overriding question of how the church—particularly the Roman Curia—governs tops the agenda after months of turmoil, including an embarrassing leaks scandal that exposed waste and infighting at the Vatican.
"A divide exists between the cardinals who work outside of Rome and those who work in the Curia," Father Thomas Reese, an analyst on Catholic issues, said Monday.
"There is a need for the general administration of the church to be put in good order," retired Cardinal Edward Egan said in a recent interview. He noted that over the past half-century, the central organization of the Vatican had gotten too large, inefficient and lost focus on what is happening in local parishes.
The challenges facing the 1.2-billion-member church, however, stretch far beyond Rome. Over the past century, nine pontiffs have overseen an evolution of the church beyond its traditional footholds in Europe and North America to increasing representation in Africa, Latin America and Africa.
Analysts, including Father Reese, have said this has led to the establishment of various camps among cardinals that don't always split among geographic lines. Latin American cardinals, for instance, may unite around the feeling that they are underrepresented in Rome, but still disagree about many other issues. The 11 North American cardinals, meanwhile, have a relatively cohesive group, while 28 Italians are split into factions.
The decision-making this time around appears to be off to a cohesive, albeit slow start. On Friday, a "great majority" of the cardinals agreed to start the conclave on Tuesday, the Vatican said—a date that likely represents a desire to make a selection well in advance of Holy Week this month.
In the days leading up to the conclave, more than 150 cardinals, some of whom won't participate in the election because they are older than the 80-year-old voting cutoff, gathered in Rome to discuss the state of the church. These men sat through 161 speeches on topics including the state of church finances, evangelization and the state of the Curia.
During breaks, dinners and other meetings, cardinals spent significant time over the past two weeks getting to know each other and listening about the situation around the world.
But the next step could be the toughest as "the field is so wide open that it is difficult to pick even a handful of candidates who are on a shortlist," said Salvadore Miranda, a Florida International University scholar who compiles data on the cardinals.
He said many past conclaves have begun with a pretty firm indication of what direction the College of Cardinals wanted to go, but "this time, it appears to be anyone's guess."
Angelo Scola from Italy, Peter Turkson of Ghana and Marc Ouellet from Canada are considered potential leading candidates as the conclave starts. But it is unclear if any of them—or any of the handful of cardinals from the U.S., Latin America or Asia that have been attracting interest—have a broad enough base of support, or are well enough known to gain the 77 votes, representing the two-thirds support needed to win.
The conclave is designed to take outside pressure off cardinals by sequestering them behind a wall of silence where communication with the outside world is essentially cut off, and much of the daily schedule is scripted.
Days begin, for instance, with a 6:30 a.m. breakfast, Mass at 8:15 a.m. and a first vote at 9:30. Lunch, another vote, vespers and an 8 p.m. dinner are also on the schedule.
Cardinals have been assigned rooms randomly in order to discourage the forging of blocs in living quarters. The election will begin Tuesday afternoon with one round of voting following an afternoon Mass.
Write to John D. Stoll at [email protected]