VATICAN CITY - Cardinals from around the globe will hold a conclave in the Sistine Chapel from next Tuesday to elect a new leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics, after "pope emeritus" Benedict XVI's historic resignation.
Cardinals will first celebrate a "Pro Eligendo Romano Pontifice" mass in St Peter's Basilica after which they will file into the chapel under the famous frescoes of Michelangelo for a centuries-old ritual bound by a vow of secrecy.
A pre-conclave meeting of cardinals on Friday "decided that the conclave will begin on Tuesday, 12 March 2013," the Vatican said in a statement.
On the eve of the event, the 115 "cardinal electors" are expected to move into a special residence within the walls of the Vatican, where they will be cut off from the world.
Each cardinal has to swear not to reveal details of the conclave on pain of excommunication. The cardinals will spend the weekend and Monday in last-minute debates over who is the best candidate.
Vatican watchers have suggested the cardinals are split roughly into two groups, between those who think that Italy's Angelo Scola, the Archbishop of Milan, is the man to lead the Church, and others who would prefer a non-Italian in charge.
Among the other names on the rumour mill are Canadian Marc Ouellet, Ghanaian Peter Turkson, US cardinal Sean O'Malley and Luis Antonio Tagle, the Archbishop of Manila.
"In the past two days things have been getting a bit clearer. There are at least half a dozen possible candidates," French cardinal Andre Vingt-trois, the Archbishop of Paris, told AFP in an interview.
In the run-up to the conclave, the Princes of the Church have seized the rare chance of being able to air their grievances against the Vatican, with no new pope to defer to and no old pope to mourn.
Benedict XVI suddenly announced his resignation last month saying he was too old to keep up with a fast-changing modern world, an unprecedented decision in modern Catholic history that has sent shockwaves through the Church worldwide.
The meetings of cardinals that began on Monday are normally something of a formality before the conclave to elect a new pope but this time around they have taken a revolutionary turn.
The closed-door talks are protected by an oath of secrecy, but the voices calling for change have been growing louder after the first papal resignation since the Middle Ages.
Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said that the issue of the Roman Curia -- the administration of the Church -- has been brought up frequently.
German cardinal Walter Kasper has been perhaps the most outspoken, telling the Italian daily La Repubblica before a media blackout was imposed that it was time for a "more horizontal government" to shake up the Church hierarchy.
"The Curia must be revolutionised," Kasper said in the interview, adding: "As well as the word reform, there must be a second: transparency."
Cardinals like Kasper had called for time for discussions that could effectively set out an agenda for the new pope but media reports said that many Italian cardinals were getting restless.
Before they cancelled their daily media briefings on Wednesday, the US cardinals said they were also in favour of broader talks on the Church.
"I think that we need to look attentively at the work of the Curia in recent years," said Daniel DiNardo, the archbishop of Galveston-Houston in Texas.
O'Malley, the archbishop of Boston, said: "There is definitely a lot of reflection going on in the Catholic world on the governance of the Catholic Church and how to improve it."
The Curia is the main instrument of Church governance and includes the Secretariat of State, effectively the foreign ministry, as well as an array of pontifical councils and congregations.
While its role has been a subject of often heated debate in the Church for centuries with reformers calling for greater "collegiality", matters have come to a head with the "Vatileaks" scandal.
Benedict's butler Paolo Gabriele last year leaked hundreds of confidential Vatican documents to the press in what he said was an effort to bring greater transparency and reveal the corruption and infighting in the Vatican.
Suspicions have lingered that more Vatican insiders were involved and a top-secret report into the Curia compiled by three cardinals for Benedict XVI has been judged so sensitive that it will only be shown to his successor.
Massimo Franco, a columnist for Italy's top daily Corriere della Sera, said the report was like a "floating mine" around the Sistine Chapel.
Timeline
Timeline
Below is a timeline of events since Benedict XVI announced he would resign as pope, to preparations for the conclave next week that will determine his successor.
FEBRUARY, 2013
- 11: The 85-year-old Benedict XVI -- or Joseph Ratzinger, who was elected the 265th pope in April 2005, succeeding John Paul II -- announces he will resign on February 28, the first pope to do so in centuries.
He explains that his "strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry".
- 13: He urges an end to "religious hypocrisy" and "rivalry" in the Catholic Church at a final mass in St. Peter's Basilica.
- 14: In a message considered his theological last will and testament, Benedict calls for a "real renewal" in the Catholic Church in the spirit of the reformist Second Vatican Council of the 1960s.
- 17: He calls on the Church and its faithful to "renew themselves" as tens of thousands of pilgrims and tourists attend his penultimate Angelus prayers.
- 22: The Vatican battles persistent rumours that Benedict's decision was triggered by an explosive report on intrigue in its corridors of power. The Vatican says the allegations are "conjectures, fictions and opinions."
- 24: Benedict delivers an emotional last Sunday prayer before tens of thousands of supporters in St Peter's Square, saying God had told him to devote himself to prayer but assuring supporters he will not "abandon" the Church.
- 25: Cardinal Keith O'Brien, Britain's most senior Roman Catholic cleric, resigns in the wake of allegations of inappropriate behaviour.
The Vatican says that a secret report on a leaks scandal in 2012 which revealed intrigue and corruption in the Church will be shown exclusively to the future pope, not to voting cardinals.
Benedict issues a decree allowing cardinals to bring forward the conclave.
- 27: On the eve of his resignation Benedict admits "stormy waters" during his pontificate as he holds his last audience in St Peter's Square before tens of thousands of pilgrims.
- 28: He vows "unconditional obedience" to his successor on his final day as pope as he bids farewell to cardinals.
In his last tweet he urges his followers to put "Christ at the centre of your lives".
He arrives by helicopter at Castel Gandolfo, the lakeside town where he will reside in the summer papal palace for the first two months of his retirement.
He makes his final farewell to followers telling them "he will become a simple pilgrim".
He officially resigns at 1900 GMT.
The papal Twitter account is suspended.
The ex-pontiff now formally carries the new title of "Roman Pontiff Emeritus" or "pope emeritus" for short, although he will still be addressed as "Your Holiness Benedict XVI".
An interim period known as the Sede Vacante (Vacant See) starts, during which the "chamberlain cardinal Tarcisio Bertone takes over Church affairs.
MARCH
- 4: Cardinals begin pre-conclave meetings.
- 5: The Sistine Chapel is shut down to prepare for the conclave, in which a total of 115 "cardinal electors" -- cardinals below the threshold age of 80 -- are set to meet to elect a new pope having sworn an oath of secrecy on pain of excommunication.
A special stove is installed in the chapel to burn the cardinals' ballots following two daily rounds of voting -- if the smoke is white, that means that a new pope has been elected.
- 8: The cardinals set the date of the start of the conclave for March 12. Cardinals will enter the Sistine Chapel to begin the solemn vote process in the afternoon, following a mass in St. Peter's Basilica. — Agence France Presse
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