Roman Catholic cardinals will set a date for the conclave to select a new pope once they feel confident they can narrow the field of candidates and get a clearer idea of who the next pope could be, Cardinal Francis George said Tuesday.
In the meantime, he and other cardinals invited the public to pray with them at 5 p.m. Rome time (10 a.m. Chicago time) on Wednesday. The cardinals will recite the rosary and other prayers in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Altar of the Chair, a symbol of the bishop of Rome designed by Italian baroque sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini.
“We came to a point where we said: ‘You know, we really have to ask people to pray,'” George said in a news conference at Pontifical North American College. “Well, if we’re asking people to pray, we should pray. … We’ll join our people in praying for the success of our discussions.”
Those discussions are well under way, George said. So far, 33 speeches have been delivered during the general congregations. But about 50-plus cardinals have asked for time, he said.
More intimate conversations have been organized in the afternoons.
“We’re starting to talk about candidates,” George said. “Some people have come forward that you haven’t been talking about. That’s interesting to me. Some are waxing and waning, depending on who you speak with.”
George has praised the media for focusing their commentary on contenders who he agrees stand a chance of becoming the next pope. That short list has included Cardinals Peter Turkson of Ghana, Angelo Scola of Milan, Marc Ouellet of Canada, Timothy Dolan of New York and Sean O’Malley of Boston.
In an interview with the Tribune, George said no signs yet clearly point to any favorites. But he has been swayed to think twice about some of the front-runners originally in his mind when he came to Rome. That is the natural winnowing of the list, he said.
“So far, most of the signs are pointing away from somebody,” George said. “The thought process starts with: ‘This looks like somebody who can really do the job.’ Then you talk to two other people, and you find out why they think he probably can’t do the job. At this point, the signs are more negative than positive.”
As in the conclave, cardinals are seated in the order they received their red hat. George’s neighbors include Cardinals Christoph Schoenborn of Vienna and Norberto Rivera Carrera of Mexico City to his right and to his left Italian Cardinal Agostino Cacciavillan, a former diplomat for the Vatican, who ordained George a bishop in 1990.
George’s other neighbor to the left, Cardinal Marian Jaworksi of Poland, has not yet arrived, he said.
As of Tuesday, two cardinal electors also had not landed in Rome, but George said that’s not the primary reason that cardinals haven’t scheduled a conclave. Though choosing the man best suited to lead the Catholic Church is a priority, there’s not yet a clear agenda for how to do that.
“Welcome to the governance of the Roman Catholic Church,” George said. “This is sometimes the case. In this case, it’s very clear that we can’t be specific because you have to respect the needs for all the cardinals to feel comfortable going into conclave. So we have to wait for that moment to come.”
Twitter @TribSeeker
