Ahead to today’s election of a new pope, the cardinals of the Catholic Church met for the ninth time in an almost daily series at the Vatican.
The ‘general congregations’ are held behind closed doors, allowing them to talk about the difficulties facing the new pope before they are sealed into the Sistine Chapel for the vote on Wednesday.
The so-called ‘Princes of the Church’ gave little away as they made their way through throngs of pilgrims and reporters for the morning gathering, not even speculating on the duration of the conclave.
One of the more conservative prelates, Cardinal William Seng Chye Goh, the Archbishop of Singapore, stated, “We don’t know, we just wait for the Lord to tell us.”
Following the death of Pope Francis, an Argentine reformer who led the Catholic Church for 12 years, on April 21, cardinals from all around the world were summoned to Rome.
