VATICAN CITY (RNS) — In a College of Cardinals that is the most geographically diverse in centuries, name tags help, said cardinals gathering to begin the process of electing a successor to Pope Francis.
The cardinals who will be sequestered in a conclave beginning May 7 said the first step to reaching a consensus of two-thirds of the group is to get to know one another and learn where they stand on the future of the church.
Europeans remain the largest geographical group represented at this week’s general congregations, where cardinals are meeting ahead of the conclave, with Italians leading within the continent. The Americas, north and south, come second with 37 cardinals. According to the Vatican, 23 cardinals are Asian and 18 are from Africa. Four are from Oceania.
In this conclave of strangers there is a “plurality of opinions, convergences and differences,” said Cardinal Giuseppe Versaldi, a nonvoting prelate due to his age, on Tuesday (April 29).
At Tuesday’s sixth meeting of the general congregations, the cardinals who spoke to RNS said no names were raised as favorites to become the next pope, but those gathered have started to trace the qualities of who that man might be.
“There is a great discussion surrounding diversity,” Versaldi said, …