Conclave to elect a new pope will start on May 7 as cardinals try to get to know one another

VATICAN CITY AP Catholic cardinals on Monday set May as the start date for the conclave to elect Pope Francis successor delaying the secret voting for two days to help them get to know one another better and find consensus on a candidate before they are sequestered in the Sistine Chapel The cardinals set the date after arriving for the first day of informal meetings following Pope Francis funeral Saturday In a chaotic scene journalists shouted out questions to the cardinals about the mood inside whether there was unity and when the conclave would begin A reporter for a satirical Italian television venture repeatedly demanded whether an Italian cardinal who has been convicted by the Vatican criminal court on finance-related charges would be allowed to vote There is the hope of unity disclosed Argentine Cardinal ngel Sixto Rossi the -year-old archbishop of Cordoba who was made a cardinal by Francis in A multitude of cardinals cited the desire to continue Francis pastoral focus on people who are marginalized and against war But conservatives in the ranks may be more focused on forging unity and refocusing the church back to core doctrines emphasized by St John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI rather than continuing Francis social justice focus and outreach to women and gays British Cardinal Vincent Nichols the -year-old archbishop of Westminster was adamant that the church must strive for unity and he downplayed divisions The role of the pope is to essentially hold us together and that s the grace we ve been given from God declared Nichols Venezuelan Cardinal Baltazar Enrique Porras Cardozo expressed confidence that once the conclave begins a decision would be quick between two and three days Cardinal electors The College of Cardinals that will elect a new pope includes members from far-flung corners of the globe whom Francis named over his -year papacy to bring in new points of views of the Catholic Church hierarchy Multiple have spent little or no time in Rome getting to know their colleagues injecting several uncertainty into a process that requires two-thirds of the voting-age cardinals to coalesce behind a single candidate Nichols acknowledged that the cardinal electors of whom were appointed by Francis don t know each other very well The last were appointed in early December We ve got all week Nichols stated as he arrived Monday Only cardinals under are eligible to vote and it is not clear how countless of the will participate A Spanish cardinal has already reported he won t come to Rome for healthcare reasons A big uncertainty is whether Cardinal Angelo Becciu once one of the preponderance powerful cardinals in the Vatican will be allowed in the Sistine Chapel Francis in forced Becciu to resign as head of the Vatican s saint-making office and renounce his rights as a cardinal because of accusations of embezzlement and financial fraud Becciu denied any wrongdoing but was put on trial in the Vatican criminal court and convicted of finance-related charges in December He is appealing the conviction and has participated in the pre-conclave meetings but there is a lingering question about whether he is entitled to vote The Vatican s official statistics list him as a non-elector When he was ousted in Becciu informed a hastily arranged press conference that he wouldn t be voting in any future conclave but of late he has insisted he is entitled to vote and canon lawyers have been poring over the Vatican document regulating the conclave to determine if he s right Papal candidates While Francis stacked the ranks with his cardinals it is not necessarily the circumstance that all of them will want to see the church continue in his image On Monday morning any glimpse of a red cap appearing along St Peter s Square s stately colonnade set journalists running with cameras and voice recorders aloft to capture the mood inside however fleeting Italian Cardinal Matteo Zuppi considered a contender to be the next pope navigated the scrum of converging journalists with humor but didn t give anything away He joked that he was holding his breath as the microphones and cameras surrounded him all the way to the Vatican gate African voices Nigerian Cardinal John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan the emeritus archbishop of Abuja was appealed if the African cardinals were coalescing around a particular candidate African bishops had made a remarkably united stand last year against Francis outreach to LGBTQ people refusing to implement his declaration allowing priests to offer blessings to same-sex couples Given such a stand there is several speculation that the African cardinal electors could help block a progressive candidate from emerging We have not come here for a political rally We have come to get a pope out revealed Onaiyekan who at is too old to vote but can have a role in influencing how younger electors might Asian and Latin American voices Indian Cardinal Anthony Poola the -year-old archbishop of Hyderabad noted he had experienced a sense of unity among his fellow cardinals but allowed that anything could happen As a relatively young cardinal Poola is one of four Indian electors who will participate in the conclave three of whom including Poola were named by Francis Anyone who is coming up must be the successor of St Peter and we all hope that he will be a good pope he announced Rossi the Argentine cardinal announced he hoped that Francis message of mercy closeness charity tenderness and faith would accompany them in finding a successor But he acknowledged the job was daunting Inquired how he felt about participating in his first conclave he responded with a laugh Afraid