Conclave to Elect New Pope Starts May 7
Catholic cardinals will meet on May 7 to start voting for a new pope, the Vatican announced on Monday, a week after the death of Pope Francis.
So-called "Princes of the Church" under the age of 80 will meet in the Sistine Chapel to choose a new religious leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics.
The date was decided at meeting of cardinals of all ages early yesterday, two days after the funeral of Francis, who died on April 21 aged 88.
The Church's 252 cardinals were called back to Rome after the Argentine's death, although only 135 are eligible to vote in the conclave.
They hail from all corners of the globe and many of them do not know each other.
But they already had four meetings last week, so-called "general congregations," where they began to get better acquainted.
Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti, 83, a former head of the Italian bishops' conference, said there was a "beautiful, fraternal atmosphere."
"Of course, there may be some difficulties because the voters have never been so numerous and not everyone knows each other," he told Italy's Corriere della Sera newspaper.
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