Ambrogio Piazzoni, vice prefect of the Vatican Library and author of a book on the history of papal elections, distributed a sheet of “some curiosities” about elections to reporters Feb. 21, the day after briefing journalists at the Vatican.
Sydney Cardinal George Pell, 71, said age, nationality and pastoral experience will be among the factors the cardinals consider when voting for a new pope.
On his last full day as pope, Pope Benedict XVI delivered an unusually personal and emotional farewell address, thanking the faithful around the world for their support and assuring them that he would remain in their service even in retirement.
In the 18 days between announcing his resignation and leaving office, Pope Benedict XVI named 19 new bishops and accepted the resignations of seven others.
The last general audience in St. Peter’s Square turned into a farewell party with balloons, flowers, flags, posters, cheers, standing ovations and a touching thank-you speech from Pope Benedict XVI.
Pope Benedict XVI will continue to be known as Pope Benedict and addressed as “His Holiness,” but after his resignation, he will add the title “emeritus” in one of two acceptable forms, either “pope emeritus” or “Roman pontiff emeritus.”
It is possible the world’s cardinals will not begin meeting at the Vatican until March 4, and they cannot set a start date for the conclave until they have met, the Vatican spokesman said.
The man cardinals choose as the next pope must be someone with the requisite energy and mastery of modern communications media to promote a revival of the faith in increasingly secular societies around the world, said Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl of Washington.
For those who have EWTN, here is the schedule the US-based Catholic satellite TV station has been circulating this week for coverage of the papal transition.
French Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, 69, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, is the “proto-deacon” of the College of Cardinals and will be the one, at the end of the conclave, who will announce to the world, “Habemus papam” (“We have a pope”).