VATICAN CITY — Cardinals gathering to choose the next pope like to say they are guided by the Holy Spirit. But the Lord moves in mysterious ways, and his delegates can be real wheeler-dealers.
Pope John Paul II forbade overt politicking and behind-the-scenes horse-trading in the coming days. The cardinals, he wrote in the 1996 constitution that lays down the rules, "shall abstain from any form of pact, agreement, promise or commitment of any kind which could oblige them to give or deny their vote to a person or persons." But he did allow the "exchange of views" in the period between a pope's death and the moment the cardinals sequester themselves in the Sistine Chapel.
By the time they sit down to business April 18 under Michelangelo's imposing "Last Judgment," the cardinals will have conferred, cajoled, pondered and probed. Over evening cocktails in marble palazzi and long lunches at gated villas, the "princes" of the Roman Catholic Church will size one another up, handicap candidates and plot the course of the world's most powerful Christian institution.
"One can see it as politicking, but ultimately I think everyone is somehow hoping to share responsibility, to not stand alone, to find support," Cardinal Lubomyr Husar of Ukraine said in an interview.
Some of the initial contacts revolve around language groups: The Spanish-speakers get together; the Anglos meet. Other gatherings are brokered based on long-standing friendships, shared ideologies or associations through shared work in the Vatican's congregations, or departments.
John Paul broke records in the number of cardinals he appointed; all but three of the 117 eligible to vote for the next pope were named by him. (And one of the three, Cardinal Jaime Sin of the Philippines, will probably miss the election because he is on kidney dialysis.) Although most members share John Paul's basic religious philosophy, the College of Cardinals represents enormous geographic and ethnic diversity. The "elector" cardinals come from 52 countries on six continents.
"The college today is so representative of the [wider] church," Spanish Cardinal Julian Herranz said in an interview before the pope's death. "It is so universal, with representatives of a world of ethnicities, cultures, languages and societies. That is Catholicism. It is universal. It is global."
