Mark O'Connor: Australian Catholic Journalist on the vote for a new pope

135 cardinals from around the world will take their picks on who the new pope should be.  

They'll be locked in Rome's Sistine Chapel from tomorrow to decide who will replace Pope Francis.   

There's no timescale for how long it'll take, but the last two papal elections lasted for two days. 

Australian Catholic Journalist Mark O’Connor told Mike Hosking the cardinals know what they're looking for. 

He thinks the cardinals want to have someone with charisma, who can connect with ordinary people. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So the famed conclave about to get underway in Rome.
One hundred and thirty three cardinals at Vatican City. They
go inside. They don't come out until the white smoke
is seen by the world. So what do we know,
Mark O'Connor. Catholic journalists in Vatican City at the moment,
as with us, make morning to you.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Good morning.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
How fascinating times.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Yeah, well, they're very hectic and frenetic. There are four
thousand journalists here in Rome accredited. There's a lot of rumors,
a lot of gossip, a lot of theories, a lot
of discussions about what will happen next. But one thing
is for certain. Tomorrow evening Rome. By tomorrow afternoon Rome time,
they will process into the Sistine Chapel and they really

(00:39):
effectively won't come out until the white smoke and the
new pope is elected. So, yeah, it's fascinating us to
see what's going to evolve. There are a number of options,
but I think, you know, I'm pretty optimistic myself as
to where things will go, you know, continuing on the
legacy of Coparansis. I don't think there's going to be
any dramatic reverse. A few cardinals there are a few

(01:02):
cardinals who are who are kind of been loudly kind
of having their go in the early days of the
pre conclave meetings, but I don't think there are any
of the ending but a minority.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
Very interesting because I was reading about the College of
Cardinals report, which is available online, but it was made
into a book, and the book was handed out and
this is some sort of sure yeah yea yeah yeah,
and so yeah, wow, that's not going to happen.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
No, I mean that that College of Cardinals reports is
funded by you know, right wing Republican Trumpists Catholics who
have been opponents of Pope Francis, and they they've been
trying to find and dig up dirt on all sorts
of prospective candidates for the papacy that they don't like.
But you know, I mean, nobody's perfect, and plenty of

(01:45):
bishops and cardinals have made mistakes and nobody and the
one who's elected isn't going to be perfect either. However,
I think, you know, doing those sorts of hit jobs,
they might give themselves personal satisfaction those people, but they
have no impact on the cardinals. The cardinals buying group
by larger a group of people who are pretty common sense,
reasonable decent people, and they don't like his jobs on

(02:06):
their fellow colleagues, et cetera. So yeah, I mean I
think there are I would put it in terms of
a driving analogy. There are there are when you're driving
a car, there are some who we're trying to reverse
the car that paye France has started, which is reform
of the church, I think in a sensible, moderate way.
There are others who wanted to go forward, but say,
oh well, he caused a little bit disruption. You know,
he wasn't a typical he was an Argentinian pope. He

(02:28):
caused some people didn't like him. Most people did. In fact,
a lot of people who weren't Catholics liked him more
than some Catholics. And so they say, you know, oh well,
let's sort of sort of slow things down. We don't
want to reverse things, but we'll just put the brake
on a bit. And then there are others who I
think want to go into cruise control and say, and
I think they're the majority of you, say, look, we're

(02:49):
never going to get another of paid for France. But
he was completely unique. But we definitely need somebody who
is going to take the jurch forward in a new
age where you've got Trump and Putin and a whole
very chaotic, you know, world at war, you know, and
the guards are in all these things. And I think
they they're going to look for somebody like Pape Francis
who can connect with people, because he's not just going

(03:10):
to be the pope for Catholics. He's going to be
the pope who needs to talk to human beings, you know,
about their fundamental rights and dignity. And Francis was great
at that. So I think that's going to give you.
And there's another group who I think the two Jesuit
cardinals are very prominent people that are in the conclave.
They're more accelerators, you know. I think they'll have interesting

(03:30):
things to say. But I think it's more likely it's
going to come from a moderate progressive And the Italians
really want the papacy back. They haven't had it for
forty they haven't had it for forty five years. But
there's only seventeen cardinals that are Italian, you know, out
of one hundred and thirty three, and the Italians, the
Italians are notoriously divided amongst themselves. So I don't think

(03:51):
they're going to get their candidate. He was Cardinal parallel
in the Secretary of State, who's a fine man, but
he's a diplomat and you know he can't you know,
he hasn't. I've got a lot of charisma with people,
and he's but he's a beautiful man, but you know,
he lacks that quality to connect with people. I think
the cardinals are going to really want to have somebody
who has a little bit of charisma and connects with

(04:12):
ordinary people as well.

Speaker 1 (04:14):
Mike, we've got to move it on, but I appreciate
it very much. Mike O'Connor, brother Mike O'Connor out of
Vatican City. We'll see what happens. We'll wait for the
white smoke.

Speaker 2 (04:21):
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