VATICAN CITY
Philly.com
Nicole Winfield, Associated Press
Posted: Sunday, March 10, 2013
VATICAN CITY – The preliminaries over, Catholic cardinals are ready to get down to the real business of choosing a pope. And even without a front-runner, there are indications they will go into the conclave Tuesday with a good idea of their top picks.
Then it will be just a matter of agreeing on one man to lead the church and tackle its many problems.
The conclave date was set Friday during a vote by the College of Cardinals, who have been meeting all week to discuss the church’s problems and priorities, and the qualities the successor to Pope Benedict XVI must possess.
That said, there doesn’t appear to be a front-runner, and the last week of deliberations has exposed sharp divisions among cardinals about some of the pressing problems facing the church, including governance within the Holy See itself.
The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said the pre-conclave meetings had given the cardinals a chance to discuss the “profile, characteristics, qualities, and talents” a future pope must have.
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