VATICAN CITY (RNS) — As cardinals left their final meeting before the conclave begins, they expressed confidence in their time of listening and prayer, and some predicted a relatively quick election of the next pope.
“We’ve gotten to know the voices of bishops from all over the world,” Cardinal José Cobo Cano, archbishop of Madrid, told RNS in Spanish. “We go on with a wide cosmos of opinions.”
Cardinal Baselios Cleemis, major archbishop-Catholicos of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church, who is based in Kerala, India, said the general congregations were a process “to go deeper (into) the life of Christ and get strength from him, and to respond to the challenges” facing the church.
“It’s a process of deep reflection,” Cleemis said.
Cardinals said they now had a better sense of each other, despite having little familiarity before the general congregations since the geographically diverse cardinals didn’t gather frequently during Pope Francis’ papacy. In their private speeches Tuesday (May 6), prelates underlined the need for “regular meetings of cardinals,” according to the Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni.
“After 15 days, yes, we now know each other better,” said Cobo Cano, adding he thought the conclave would be relatively short.
The general congregation on Tuesday also addressed continuing Francis’ reforms, not only concerning safeguarding and accountab …