Jo McKenna: Rome Correspondent discusses the upcoming conclave to select new Pope

Discussions around the next Pope are heating up.

Eighty-eight year old Pope Francis has been laid to rest after a funeral in front of St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican on Saturday night.

One hundred and 35 cardinals will soon be locked in the Sistine Chapel to vote on his successor in secret - the candidates must be aged under 80.

Newstalk ZB's Jo McKenna, who's at St Peters' Square, told Ryan Bridge she's been told the Italians want to see a European Pope.

She says her source has told her they didn't like that an outsider from Argentina had come in and shaken things up, as they see it as a family business.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Papal politics well underway now that Pope Francis has been
laid to rest your purists, they argue the Vatican's gone
a bit woke. Too much focus on inclusion and diversity,
not enough talk about the Bible and how it can
be quite well strict actually on a lot of social stuff.
The conclave must start by May tenth at the latest.
Our Rome correspondent Joe McKenna is at the Vatican for

(00:22):
us this morning. Joe, Welcome to the show.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Hello Ryanhi, very.

Speaker 1 (00:28):
Well, thank you and nice to have you at the
Vatican for us. So this is all starting to get
a bit political. What actually happens now and when does
the conclave have to start?

Speaker 2 (00:40):
Well, the politics, of course is fascinating. It's very medieval.
After the pope's death, the conclave has to start within
fifteen to two days, so we're expecting that to get underway,
probably Monday or Tuesday next week.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
What do you rate the chances of them going even
more progressive than from answers was or do you think
it's going to go the other way? And Elena bit
more conservative.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
Look, it's an interesting time and the conservatives were very angry,
very upset with Pope Francis, even though he was so
loved and so popular. You're right, as you said earlier,
there was a concern that he was too ambiguous on
things like gay rights and the role of women in
the church, and whether divorces should be allowed to have communion.

(01:28):
They didn't like it. They didn't like him being buried
in a very simple coffin. They didn't like his informality.
They didn't like the fact that he gave up all
the traditional robes and the papal apartment and decided to
live out the back in a little tiny room in
the cars of Santa Mata. So these conservatives are pushing

(01:49):
back big time, and there is a lot of toing
and froing going on behind the scenes right now. The
other thing that's interesting, I ran into a Vatican insider
last night who had a scene your position no longer,
and he told me off the record, the Italians want
to see a European pope. They want to see an
Italian pope. And even though the Italians don't have a

(02:10):
huge number in terms of the total electors, there are
only about sixteen Italians, he said, they have enormous influence.
They see it as a family business, and they didn't
like the fact that some outsider came in from Argentina
and shook things up.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
That's me, Joe. It's interesting because there's one hundred I mean,
just the word family business and Italian. It's a dangerous combinent,
dangerous combination. Anyway, the one hundred and thirty cardinals who
were there, I was reading yesterday that you know, obviously
Francis appointed a lot of them, and a lot of
them don't you know each other. They've never meet each

(02:47):
other before. They're from far flying parts of the world.
This is almost going to be like the first day
of school when they get together.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
Yeah, it's a very good way of putting it. They've
had a couple of meetings already, but things will really
crank up tomorrow. They've got this old fashioned thing where
they don't really like to say too much before the
funeral itself, but things will really crank up. And as
you said, you know, there are a lot of newcomers. They're
being sworn in before. They have what's called these congregations

(03:17):
where it's really an opportunity for the players to showcase
what their papacy would be like. And that's what really
happened with Pope Francis when he gave a speech way
back in twenty thirteen. It really moved the cardinals to
get behind him because he had a vision for how
he wanted to take the church. Not all of them

(03:38):
were happy with what happened, but that's really what happened
behind closed doors. And so we've had some of the
cardinals meeting, not all of them there that will step
up tomorrow. And don't forget the cardinals that cannot vote
in the conclave also take part in these meetings. So
you've got the elderly cardinals over the age of eighty

(03:59):
who will also have some influence on the newcomers in
terms of the direction of the conclave.

Speaker 1 (04:04):
Joe, thank you very much for that. Great to have
you on the show. As always, Joe mckinna, our Rome
correspondent at the Vatican.

Speaker 2 (04:10):
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