Dossier receive cardinals with pope candidates and subtle hint

Dossier receive cardinals with pope candidates and subtle hint

When the cardinals enter the Sistine chapel on Wednesday to start with the conclave and the choice of a new Pope, they will be isolated from the outside world. Nevertheless, there is no attempt not to be influenced by the 133 prelies entitled to vote, which will vote for a successor to the late Pope Francis. The voters are allowed to bring written materials along, and in the days before the conclave a book about their co -cardinals was offered - one with a clear message.

The book "The report on the Cardinal College"

The book entitled "The Report on the Cardinal College" offers profiles of around 40 papal candidates and contains an analysis of their positions on topics such as the blessing of same -sex couples, the consecration of female deacons and the teaching of the church for contraception. The subliminal message: chooses a Pope that can lead the church in a different direction than Pope Francis-whose Reforms have annoyed some conservatives.

influential players behind the project

The report on the Cardinal College is online free of charge and was also published as a large-format book. A retired cardinal who cannot participate in the conclave reported CNN that he had received a print edition. This project is headed by the two Catholic journalists Edward Pentin from Great Britain and Diane Montagna from the USA, whose work is published on traditionalist and conservative Catholic news sites. Montagna handed over the book to cardinals that enter and leave the sessions in front of the conclave.

independence and neutrality of reporting

The Creators of the report emphasize that the document should serve to help the cardinals to get to know each other better. The compilation was carried out by an international and independent team of Catholic journalists and researchers. In view of a compliance, in which the cardinals - a diverse group of 71 countries, many of which have been appointed by Francis in the past ten years - do not know themselves well during their meetings.

When asked about CNN whether the cardinals can take the report into the conclave, a spokesman for the Vatican said: "What they take with them is up to them." However, two canon lawyers said that the report was anything but impartial and an attempt to influence the conclave in an anti-French direction. This is how Cardinal Mario Grech, who is considered a controversial, is praised while US Cardinal Raymond Burke, a prominent critic of Francis.

resistance to influence

The report was created in cooperation with the Sophia Institute Press, a traditionalist publisher in New Hampshire, and the French magazine Cardinalis. Sophia Institute Press publishes the strong anti-French "Crisis Magazine" and published the book "Infiltration" in 2019, which claims that a group of "modernists and Marxists" in the 19th century designed a plan to undermine the Catholic Church from the inside. Cardinalis regularly publishes articles on prominent conservative cardinals.

The report of the report on the Cardinal College tries to reject allegations of bias by explaining: "Our approach is based on facts, and we strive for neutrality to offer such a precise picture as possible from the way of man that could one day enter the footsteps of the fisherman" - an allusion to the first Pope, St. Peter.

historical role models and outlook

The authors point out that there are historical precedents for their initiative, in which "diplomats and other trustworthy writers put together more detailed and reliable biographies of cardinals and distribute them to interested parties." Pentin said: "The report was designed and created as a service to the members of the Holy College to help them get to know each other better, with regard to the upcoming conclave and beyond. Of course we tried to make the site and the accompanying documents as many cardinals accessible as possible."

Dawn Eden Goldstein, a canon lawyer and Catholic author from Washington DC, but expressed doubts. "Even if they were supported by a cardinal in the style of Francis, this would still be prohibited in accordance with canon law," she said.

prospects for the 2025

Pope John Paul II prohibited in his rules to choose the popes, under the threat of excommunication, "all possible forms of influence or opposition" by political authorities, including "individuals or groups" that could try to influence the choice of the Pope. The idea behind the confidentiality of the complain is to prevent external influence. In the past, European monarchs had the veto in the pope election, the last time such a veto was exercised.

The concrete of 2025, however, provides for various attempts to influence the process. Survivors of sexual abuse in the clergy have set up a database to check the files of cardinals in relation to this subject area, while social media are full of constraints-from AI-generated videos of cardinals that celebrate in the Sistine chapel, to the publication of a Artificially created image by Donald Trump as a pope .

financially strong groups as influence

well -financed conservative Catholic groups are among the potential influencers. Sophia Institute Press publishes books in partnership with the Eternal Word Network (EWTN), the greatest religious broadcaster in the world, which has often offered a platform critics. The Napa Institute, a conservative Catholic group, A group of Catholic philanthropists present in the weeks before the conclave in Rome , as well as the Papal Foundation. "This room could raise a billion to help the church. As long as we have the right pope," said an anonymous member of the Papal Foundation of the Times of London.

Some members of these groups are also supporters of Trump. Tim Busch, a California lawyer and co-founder of Napa, described the Trump administration as the "Christians he has ever seen" . Busch rejected the claim that he was "anti-French", however, emphasized that the ultra-conservative archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò "did a great service to us" when he published a dossier in 2018 that asked the late Pope to resign. Viganò was because of Schismas.

Kurt Martens, professor of canon law at the Catholic University of America, emphasized that the church law order aims to protect the cardinals from any kind of external influence and influence. He referred to the "Red Hat Report", a US group that was looking for more than $ 1 million in 2018, to to create dossiers about candidates , Preventing a concrete that Francis chose.

Martens said that initiatives such as the report of the cardinals and the Red Hat Hat Hat Hats "should not only provide objective information, but also colored information, and thus try to influence the result of the conclusion". He added: "According to the rules of John Paul II, this is absolutely prohibited."

Nevertheless, the cardinals are not easy to influence. Cardinal Oswald Gracias, the retired Archbishop of Bombay, warned his fellow brothers of "Fake News" on social media in a conversation with CNN. He reported that he had received the book about the cardinals, but had not yet worked through it. "It's a well -produced work, but I hope it is exactly," he added.