VATICAN CITY
Religion News Service
David Gibson | Mar 8, 2013
VATICAN CITY (RNS) The conclave to pick a new pope will begin as early as Monday, and likely no later than Wednesday, the Vatican said Friday morning. The final date was to be set by a vote of the cardinals later Friday evening.
The start date was an open question that has been dogging the cardinals, and reportedly dividing them as they gathered in closed-door meetings over the past week to prepare for the papal election.
Some of the cardinals — notably the American electors and several from Africa and Latin America — had balked at trying to hold the conclave too quickly, arguing that the more than 150 cardinals gathered here needed time in their General Congregation meetings to discuss the key issues facing the church and to size up potential candidates.
Others cardinals, notably those associated with the Roman curia, the Vatican bureaucracy, were pushing for a quick conclave, apparently in hopes of choosing a candidate to their liking before the cardinals from other parts of the world could rally around an outsider.
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