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.
Weiss said he believes the greater diversity of cardinals in 2025 could have an influence on the vote.
“The fact is that Catholicism and Christianity are growing in Asia. In fact, the second most numerous voting bloc in the conclave will be the Asian cardinals. There are, I think, 50 cardinals from Europe, of whom 17 are Italian. Then, there’s 22 Asians, and the next largest bloc would be Africans,” Weiss said.
“I think they will clearly insist on somebody who maintains that global focus,” he continued.
On Wednesday, Weiss said, each cardinal will step forward and place his hand on the gospel for the oath of secrecy. The cardinals will then proceed to the first vote.
“It will be a trial vote. It would be very unusual for any clarity to emerge from that vote, certainly not a majority,” Weiss said.
“But, let me point out that three of the last four conclaves ended on the first full day of the conclave. By the first afternoon vote, they had a majority. So, we might hope that will happen, but the cardinals seem more disunified this time, so the conclave could certainly continue for a day or two.”
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