VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider
The “fumata” could be expected around 12:00pm or around 7:00pm. Monday the last General Congregation will be held
ALESSANDRO SPECIALE
Rome
It is not true that the College of Cardinals is split in half: in fact, according to the Vatican spokesman father Federico Lombardi, yesterday the Cardinals voted with a very large majority (“approximately ten to one”) to open the Conclave that will elect the successor of Pope Benedict XVI next Tuesday.
During his usual briefing at the Vatican, the Vatican spokesman joked with reporters: “I’m sorry that we are approaching the end of this period of daily meetings”, and he immediately refuted the rumours of divisions and fractures among the Cardinals who will enter the Conclave next week.
Lombardi explained that during yesterday afternoon’s General Congregation (the eighth since the beginning of the sede vacante), the Dean of the Sacred College Cardinal Angelo Sodano immediately began the process of voting on the Conclave’s beginning date. And already at the first vote there was an overwhelming majority in favour of Tuesday the 12th, stressed the spokesman.
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