As 133 Catholic cardinals entered the Sistine Chapel Wednesday to take an oath of secrecy ahead of the conclave, a Boston College associate professor of theology analyzed the possible outcomes of the ritual.
Fr. James M. Weiss said that since the cardinals are not very familiar with each other, they could turn to a “safe and somewhat more low-key administrator.”
“One thing that I think is important about the conclave that I haven’t heard anybody mention is that it’s very much like the conclave in 2005, where you have a large number of cardinals from all over the world who simply don’t know each other, and they’ve been complaining about that for the last two weeks,” said Weiss. “In fact, the Vatican finally decided to give them name tags for their meetings.”
Weiss also believes the church is hoping for someone with the same compassion and sense of outreach that Pope Francis embodied.
The public will not see the cardinals again until white smoke indicates that two-thirds of them have agreed on a new pontiff.
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