Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI took those who were interested more deeply into the Gospel of Life, writes Anna Krohn

If Jesus had wanted a church free of scandal or problems, he would have put it in the hands of angels, not a humanity he loved, said Nigeria’s newest cardinal elector.

When 115 cardinal electors gather in the Sistine Chapel for the conclave to elect a new pope, they will be praying and voting four times a day.

Cardinal electors assembled in Rome will begin voting for the next pope March 12. Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, announced the date for the start of the election, known as a conclave, in a message to reporters March 8.

Citing unauthorized press reports on their preparatory meetings for the upcoming papal election, the College of Cardinals agreed to a media blackout similar to one observed before the previous conclave in 2005.

The process of selecting a new pope is “ultimately not an election, ultimately it is a discernment,” said Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, retired archbishop of Washington.

The Sistine Chapel’s transformation from a world-famous tourist site to the prayer-filled space where cardinal electors will choose the next pope is under way.

A major issue facing today’s U.S. Catholic Church is that many people express “absolutely no problem with faith, but they do have a problem with religion,” said New York Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan.

In their general congregation meetings, in liturgical processions and in the Sistine Chapel, every cardinal has a place and each cardinal knows his place. The Vatican calls it “precedence,” and it has little to do with the importance of the cardinal’s day job, the size of his diocese or his age. But it has everything to do with timing.

Laypeople have a right and duty to offer their ideas to the cardinals who will elect the next pope, one theologian observed as part of a panel of lay Catholics who proposed that characteristics such as joy and diplomacy were important to the selection.