Comment VATICAN CITY — Cardinals of the Catholic Church gathered in Rome for a series of formal events that began Saturday when Pope Francis inducted 20 new ecclesiastics into their exclusive club. Next on the agenda are two days of discussions, starting Monday, on reforms to the Vatican constitution. But just as crucially, there is an unofficial agenda. The cardinals must get to know each other, because whenever Francis resigns or dies, they will have to choose his successor from among their ranks. Given the rarity of such gatherings, this is one of their best opportunities to huddle, gauge each other and form opinions on the future direction of the Catholic Church. “It’s not casting [call], but we need this moment,” said Cardinal Cristóbal López Romero, the Spanish-born archbishop of Rabat, Morocco. “Sooner or later, we have to choose the next Pope. So we have to listen to each other, get to know each other.” The Vatican says 197 of the world’s 226 cardinals have arrived in Rome this week — a remarkable number, given the advanced age of the group’s members. (Only cardinals under 80 — currently, 132 — are eligible to participate in a conclave that chooses the pope.) Although cardinals generally meet in significant numbers at the Vatican whenever Francis creates new members — which he has done eight times during his papacy — there was no known treaty in 2021. And the 2020 one had limited participation due to the pandemic. As a result, this is the first major gathering of cardinals since 2019, a time when the end point of Francis’ pontificate seemed a much more distant idea. Some church watchdogs say you have to go even further back — to 2015 — to find a time when cardinals showed up at the Vatican in similar numbers. In four months, Francis turns 86, an age reached by only one other pope since 1800: Leo XIII, still 93 in 1903. Although his health has been stable throughout his papacy, last year he underwent colon surgery and says he still experiences residual “traces” from general anesthesia. And lately he’s been mostly in a wheelchair due to knee pain. While neither issue precluded him from ruling the church, the events have reminded of the frailty of old age and have heightened questions about his longevity. Francis said last month that “the door is open” to retirement should his health make it impossible for him to lead the church. But he said he hadn’t reached that point yet. “That doesn’t mean the day after tomorrow I don’t start thinking [about it]right?” Francis said. “But right now, I honestly don’t.” In earlier times of the church, it would have been expected that Francis would have continued to serve until his death. But the surprise resignation of Pope Benedict XVI in 2013 created an alternative for modern popes. Pope Benedict, in retired isolation, wanders at odds with Pope Francis Whenever Francis leaves the job, there are several critical questions facing the cardinals who will choose his replacement. One is whether they will seek a successor who shares Francis’ vision of a more inclusive church. Francis, more than nine years into his tenure, has helped boost the odds for such a scenario because his appointments now represent 63 percent of voting-age cardinals, according to Vatican statistics. However, conclaves are notoriously unpredictable. Not all the cardinals Francis has chosen share his worldview. And support from cardinals handpicked by more conservative predecessors Benedict and John Paul II would still be necessary for any future pope to reach the two-thirds mark. Another question concerns geography — whether the next pope will be non-European. Before Francis, who is Argentinian, the church had chosen European pontiffs for more than 1,000 years. But as the church withers in Europe, its geographic heartland has shifted to places like Latin America and Africa. Francis, with the cardinals he has chosen over the years, has made the body of would-be electors less European. Francis’ latest batch of cardinals represent places like East Timor, Colombia and Nigeria. On Monday, the cardinals will hold two days of talks on the new Vatican constitution, which was published in March and amounted to a reorganization of the church’s bureaucracy. But there is also plenty of time for twinning. Their time in Rome coincides with the city shutting down in August, with Romans having left the city for mountains and beaches and many cafes and restaurants closed. The streets around the Vatican are filled with a mix of tour groups and high ranking dignitaries. López Romero, in an interview, said he had already dined and prayed with a Guinean cardinal, Robert Sarah. The youngest cardinal, Giorgio Marengo, 48, an Italian who has served in Mongolia for many years, said his hopes for the coming days are “very basic” — to get to know the other cardinals better. “You have people who come from persecuted churches. Theologians,” Marengo said. “I hope these days will help me learn [from them].”
