VATICAN CITY
York Dispatch
By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press
Updated: 03/07/2013
VATICAN CITY—Cardinals in Rome for the conclave to elect the next pope received a briefing on the Holy See’s finances Thursday amid questions about the Vatican bureaucracy and continued suspicions about its bank.
The heads of the Vatican’s three main financial offices briefed the cardinals as required by rules covering the transition period between papacies, during which cardinals meet daily to discuss the problems of the church and the qualities needed in a new pope.
The cardinals didn’t set a date for the start of the conclave, and the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said he didn’t expect a decision to be taken in Thursday’s afternoon session. The last of the 115 voting-age cardinals, Vietnamese Cardinal Jean-Baptiste Pham Minh Man, was arriving later Thursday and the date can’t be set until he does.
But a decision on the start also depends on a determination by the cardinals that they have had sufficient time to gather all the information they need about the state of the church and who should be pope.
Once the conclave starts, there is very little time for discussion. There are two votes in the morning and two votes in the afternoon—all of them conducted in silent prayer, not chatter. As a result, setting the date for the conclave is akin to setting the deadline for when deliberations effectively finish.
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