Power struggle looms at Vatican

[emad]

The Australian
Peter Wilson, Europe correspondent
February 28, 2005

THE Pope's hospital, Gemelli, is once again the focus of massive attention in Rome but a few kilometres away a more secluded building is quietly being readied for its role in the future of the Catholic Church.

Hidden inside the Vatican, behind two checkpoints manned by Swiss guards, is Casa Santa Marta, a $US20million ($25.6 million) hostel especially built in the late 1990s to accommodate the cardinals who will eventually gather to select a new pope.

With 84-year-old John Paul II yesterday unable to conduct his traditional Sunday blessing for the first time in his pontificate, the cardinals are obviously already thinking about their choices, and clergy across Australia are wondering what a new papacy will mean for the church at home and abroad.

After the Pope dies, Archbishop of Sydney George Pell and about 115 other cardinals will stay at Casa Santa Marta under strict isolation while meeting twice a day in the nearby Sistine Chapel to vote for a new leader for the 1.1billion-member church.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,12392621%255E2703,00.html

[MichiganVote]

1. Watch em' select Cardinal Law

[emad]

2. Yep my moneys on a US national as the bankruptcy bills keep

piling up.....

[kskiska]

3. It will be a media circus this time

This will be the first time a new pope will be selected since the advent of 24/7 news. It used to be a fairly low-key event, with the news reporting the color of the puffs of smoke emitted. This time, reporters will be camped outside, breathlessly reporting each and every rumor.

[Matilda]

4. John Paul II has changed the voting rules

to make it possible to elect a new pope by a majority of one vote
if the cardinals fail to elect a pope with a 2/3 majority after a
certain number of ballots.

I would think this would make the election of a compromise pope -
historically, some of the most enlightened popes the Church has had -
less likely.