VATICAN CITY (RNS) — With less than two days left before they sequester themselves in the Vatican’s ornate Sistine Chapel to cast their first votes for the next pope, cardinals said they are still narrowing the possible candidates as they get to know each other and get a sense of their respective visions for the future of Catholicism.
“We are still reflecting on the affairs of the universal church and also searching for a major person to follow the pontificate,” Cardinal Baselios Cleemis, head of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church, an Eastern rite church in communion with Rome, told Religion News Service as he left a pre-conclave meeting of cardinals on Monday (May 5).
Like other cardinals in recent days, Cleemis, who is based in India, emphasized that the cardinals will not be making a choice based on nationality or ethnicity, despite the diversity of the college of cardinals and the emphasis Pope Francis, who elevated many of them to the cardinalate, placed on including the church’s far-flung “peripheries.”
“Right now we are in prayer, and we need to remain calm,” said Cardinal Giorgio Marengo, an Italian prelate tapped by Francis to head the church’s missionary jurisdiction in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Marengo is the first occupant of his post to be made a cardinal and among the youngest prelates voting at the conclave.
The prelates share a sense of “unity and communion,” in the words of the influential Cardinal Filipe Neri Ferrão, the archbishop of Goa and Daman, leader of the bishops’ conferences of India and president of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences.
Initial reports of the cardinals’ discussions since arriving in Rome hinted at a quick conclave, with some suggesting it wouldn’t last more than two or three days. But in the nine days following the funeral of Francis, some of the prelate’s preconceptions seem to have been shaken. According to the Vatican press office, the pre-conclave meetings, known as general congregations, will be extended into the evening Monday to give more cardinals time to have their voices heard, with the implication that the electors are anxious to know more about their fellow red hats ahead of the conclave.
The Domus Sanctae Marthae, where cardinal electors will live during the conclave to find a successor to Pope Francis. (Photo by Johannes Müller/Wikimedia/Creative Commons)
Meanwhile, the Domus Sancta Marta, the residential buildings where the cardinals will be housed during the conclave, is being prepared with a particular eye to ensuring the secrecy and integrity of the conclave. The cardinals are “invited to hand over their phones” and devices, according to Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni, and the internet will not be available in the area of the building.
With the 133 cardinal electors in the conclave, exceeding the maximum number set by Pope Paul VI, lots were drawn to determine which cardinals would reside in the new Domus Sancta Marta and which would stay in the old residence.
The intense media attention that the death and funeral of Francis, as well as the upcoming conclave, have garnered was among the topics discussed by the 179 cardinals attending today’s gathering, Bruni said. The cardinals “mentioned the fact that it expresses the gospel still has meaning in the life of today and constituted a call to responsibility,” Bruni said.
The issue of transmitting the faith, especially among young people, was raised in at least one of the speeches made by the cardinals today, Bruni said. Young Catholics attempted to have their voices heard in the conclave by sending an open letter on Monday urging the voting prelates to select a pontiff who is forward-thinking and open to the inclusion of young people, women and the laity.
“Let the conclave not be a closed space. Let it become a wellspring of spiritual renewal,” read the letter, which was issued by Sofi Van Ussel, director of Kamino, a Belgian initiative to promote the roles of young people in the church with “the input of hundreds of young people,” according to the organization’s press release.
People roam around St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, Saturday, May 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
“Do not merely elect a pope. Choose a pilgrim. A shepherd. A peacemaker,” read the statement, which was also promoted by the influencer Sister Xiskya and Padre Guilherme, a priest and music DJ who is popular online.
Over the weekend, the Filipino Catholic bishops’ conference released a statement pushing back on some of the criticism of Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, among the top papabile in contention, and his record on handling sexual abuse.
The group Bishop Accountability particularly had criticized the fact that the Filipino bishops’ conference has no guidelines publicly available online for dealing with sexual abuse. In answer, the Filipino bishops wrote that Tagle “actively participated in the development and implementation” of pastoral guidelines dealing with sexual abuse, which were circulated in 2003.
Tagle “has consistently advocated for a humble and responsive Church that listens to the cries of the wounded and acts decisively to protect the vulnerable,” the bishops’ conference wrote. They also wrote that Tagle had not been involved in “the governance or disciplinary matters of Philippine dioceses” since becoming part of the Roman curia, the Vatican bureaucracy.
But SNAP accused Tagle of mishandling sexual abuse while a member of the curia as well, and Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of the watchdog group, said it was “disingenuous” for the Filipino bishops to imply Tagle is “powerless to influence his brother bishops.”
She also told RNS that, while Tagle speaks movingly of victims, Bishop Accountability research “found no evidence that as bishop, he removed abusers, punished complicit bystanders, or deterred other clergy from molesting children.”