Latest / The Front / All eyes on Rome as cardinals convene to pick a new Pope
Transcript
- 0:03Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Christian, amiot.
- 0:06Speaker 1: It's Wednesday, April twenty three, twenty twenty five. The International
- 0:13Speaker 1: Monetary Fund says the Australian government, elected on May three,
- 0:17Speaker 1: needs to tighten its purse strings if it wants to
- 0:20Speaker 1: survive a recession caused by Donald Trump's trade war. A
- 0:28Speaker 1: Greens candidate who claims Israel Is guilty of genocide is
- 0:32Speaker 1: being boosted by Labour in the Prime Minister's seat of
- 0:35Speaker 1: Graindler as part of a preference swap deal. The nation's
- 0:39Speaker 1: peak Jewish body slammed the move, saying the PM is
- 0:42Speaker 1: rewarding political extremists. That exclusive story is live right now
- 0:47Speaker 1: at the Australian dot com dot au. The world's most
- 0:53Speaker 1: senior Catholic leaders are making their way to Rome following
- 0:57Speaker 1: the death of Pope Francis on Monday, lay the late
- 1:00Speaker 1: Pontiff to rest in the coming days before turning their
- 1:03Speaker 1: minds to the question of who'll succeed the church's first
- 1:07Speaker 1: South American Pope. That's today's episode. Hi Jack, how was
- 1:17Speaker 1: the flight?
- 1:18Speaker 2: Oh? It was a mad dash. Of course, trying to
- 1:20Speaker 2: get a flight was always an issue. The plane was full,
- 1:24Speaker 2: but I did get a seat, perhaps not as early
- 1:26Speaker 2: as I would have liked, but I've arrived.
- 1:28Speaker 1: Jacqueline Magne is the Australian's europe correspondent. She was headed
- 1:33Speaker 1: in the opposite direction to Scotland when she got word
- 1:36Speaker 1: Pope Francis had died in Rome.
- 1:39Speaker 2: The hardest thing was actually finding a hotel that perhaps
- 1:42Speaker 2: our accountants will be accommodating, because even as I was watching,
- 1:48Speaker 2: the prices were doubling and then tripling. So it's not
- 1:51Speaker 2: a cheap exercise to be in Rome at the moment.
- 1:55Speaker 1: The Vatican announced the Pontiff's death on Monday evening, as
- 1:59Speaker 1: the Easter long weekend came to a close.
- 2:02Speaker 3: Cari si mi forrett elie la morte del Nostro Santo
- 2:07Speaker 3: Padre Francesco.
- 2:09Speaker 1: Pope Francis, the first Latin American leader of the Roman
- 2:13Speaker 1: Catholic Church, has died.
- 2:15Speaker 3: His final days were spent in Rome's Gamelli Hospital, battling
- 2:19Speaker 3: a prolonged asthmatic respiratory crisis while being treated for pneumonia
- 2:23Speaker 3: and a complex lung infection.
- 2:26Speaker 1: This morning, confirmation from the Vatican he passed away from
- 2:28Speaker 1: stroke and heart failure.
- 2:30Speaker 2: Today global leaders are paying their respects and remembering the
- 2:34Speaker 2: Pontiff's legacy. The Vatican will observe a nine day period
- 2:38Speaker 2: of mourning.
- 2:43Speaker 1: So Jack, we just heard there the bells of Saint
- 2:45Speaker 1: Peter Square in the Vatican tolling to mark the death
- 2:48Speaker 1: of Pope Francis. It came, of course, just one day
- 2:51Speaker 1: after Catholics all over the world celebrated the Easter holiday.
- 2:55Speaker 1: What's the mood like in Rome as the world reacts
- 2:58Speaker 1: to the Pontiff's passing.
- 3:00Speaker 2: I think it's still shock. Most people thought that the
- 3:04Speaker 2: Pope was recovering. It would not have been a surprise
- 3:08Speaker 2: five weeks ago for the Pope to have died, but
- 3:10Speaker 2: then he appeared to rally and get better, so people
- 3:14Speaker 2: were very encouraged, even though he did look frail, that
- 3:18Speaker 2: he was making the effort to see them and be
- 3:21Speaker 2: amongst them, and that was incredibly well received. So it
- 3:25Speaker 2: was a big festive celebration of Easta but also of
- 3:29Speaker 2: the Pope rejoining his flock, and so for him to
- 3:33Speaker 2: have died just hours later really has just been such
- 3:38Speaker 2: a huge shock to everybody.
- 3:45Speaker 1: In the coming days and weeks, the grief of the
- 3:48Speaker 1: world's one point three billion Catholics will turn to curiosity
- 3:53Speaker 1: about who comes next following the pope's funeral, and when
- 3:57Speaker 1: the official morning period ends, a conclay is called. It's
- 4:01Speaker 1: the ancient and secretive ritual that's seen two hundred and
- 4:04Speaker 1: sixty six popes elected to lead the Catholic Church. The
- 4:10Speaker 1: vote takes place in the storied Cistine Chapel under that
- 4:13Speaker 1: ornate ceiling painted by Michelangelo in the fifteen hundreds. Sometimes
- 4:18Speaker 1: it last days, others weeks. Once it took three years.
- 4:24Speaker 1: The ballots cast by eligible cardinals behind the lock doors
- 4:28Speaker 1: of the chapel are kept secret, but the ending is
- 4:31Speaker 1: always the same.
- 4:33Speaker 3: Looking right now that smoke is now coming out of
- 4:35Speaker 3: the chimney, it is.
- 4:39Speaker 2: Oh very much white.
- 4:41Speaker 3: We have a new pope.
- 4:46Speaker 1: We asked Jack about the cardinals in line to be
- 4:48Speaker 1: the next pope back in February when Pope Francis was
- 4:51Speaker 1: hospitalized with pneumonia. Here's a bit of what she said.
- 4:55Speaker 2: Then, well, there's about a dozen front runners. So there's
- 5:00Speaker 2: an Italian cardinal, Pietro Parolyn. There's a reason that he's
- 5:05Speaker 2: a front runner because he's considered to be a steady hand.
- 5:08Speaker 2: And there's also the Philippines Cardinal Louis Antonio Tagle, he's
- 5:12Speaker 2: also fairly moderate. We've got Cardinal Peter Urdo from Hungary.
- 5:18Speaker 2: He's very popular amongst all of the cardinals. And then
- 5:23Speaker 2: you know you've got people like will the church go
- 5:26Speaker 2: and elect someone who's from the Congo, Fridolin and Bongo.
- 5:30Speaker 2: He's the president of the African and Madagascar Symposium, so
- 5:36Speaker 2: he has kind of control or authority of a significant
- 5:40Speaker 2: area of the world. And then Robert Sara of Guinea.
- 5:44Speaker 2: He's very conservative.
- 5:48Speaker 1: Jack has that changed now that everyone's had more time
- 5:51Speaker 1: than they might have expected to mull it over.
- 5:54Speaker 2: All the cardinals, they're all coming in from all parts
- 5:57Speaker 2: of the globe to try and be there at the
- 6:00Speaker 2: first meeting, which was to decide when the Pope is
- 6:03Speaker 2: going to lie in state and when the funeral is
- 6:05Speaker 2: going to be held. So there's some pretty significant decisions
- 6:09Speaker 2: to be made of events that will happen in the
- 6:12Speaker 2: next few days, and so cardinals are literally in the air.
- 6:15Speaker 2: The Australian Cardinal Bichok is in Israel as we speak.
- 6:20Speaker 2: He was in the air en route to Israel when
- 6:23Speaker 2: he heard the news that the Pope had died so
- 6:26Speaker 2: there's been these frantic efforts to reroot his itinery so
- 6:31Speaker 2: that he can get to Rome as quickly as possible.
- 6:34Speaker 2: So that's just one cardinal. Everybody else around the world
- 6:38Speaker 2: as well is also trying to get to Rome. So
- 6:42Speaker 2: the opportunities for the cardinals to get together to discuss
- 6:46Speaker 2: this have been quite limited. But I think it's a
- 6:50Speaker 2: little bit too early to say, and to be honest,
- 6:53Speaker 2: history will show that the bookies always get it wrong
- 6:56Speaker 2: on this. So who people think might be the best
- 6:59Speaker 2: pope not necessarily the pope that gets elected.
- 7:03Speaker 1: Pope Francis was, of course the first pope from the Americas.
- 7:06Speaker 1: He was born to Italian immigrants in Buenos Aires.
- 7:10Speaker 2: Do you think this.
- 7:11Speaker 1: Upcoming conclave is an opportunity for another first in that
- 7:14Speaker 1: we could see a pope from Asia or even Africa elected.
- 7:18Speaker 2: I think we might find that there is a certain
- 7:21Speaker 2: backlash against the progressiveness of Pope Francis, that many of
- 7:25Speaker 2: those within the church at the higher echelons were disappointed
- 7:31Speaker 2: with the very left leaning liberal ways that the church
- 7:35Speaker 2: was heading, and so there could be a real switch
- 7:38Speaker 2: to go back to someone more conservative. So we can't
- 7:42Speaker 2: rule out that there could be another pope outside of Europe.
- 7:46Speaker 2: When we look at the church's popularity now, we see
- 7:50Speaker 2: that it's in areas of Asia and South America where
- 7:54Speaker 2: the church is incredibly popular. So perhaps that may reflect
- 8:00Speaker 2: the popularity of the church rather than its particular leanings.
- 8:03Speaker 2: The fact that we're even talking about these cardinals as
- 8:06Speaker 2: being candidates shows how much the church has changed over
- 8:10Speaker 2: the last ten twenty years. If we look at who
- 8:15Speaker 2: the voting cardinals are, you have to be under eighty
- 8:17Speaker 2: to be able to vote for the pope, and if
- 8:22Speaker 2: we look most of them, about sixty sixty five percent
- 8:26Speaker 2: of them were actually appointed by Pope Francis. It will
- 8:31Speaker 2: be interesting to see who they actually vote for. So
- 8:36Speaker 2: there will be a lot of lobbying and moving and
- 8:39Speaker 2: shaking going on over the coming days, certainly after the funeral,
- 8:43Speaker 2: and a lot of interesting developments going on around the church,
- 8:47Speaker 2: with people laying out their stall really of what they're
- 8:51Speaker 2: whether they're progressive or conservative, and really trying to attract
- 8:56Speaker 2: their fellow cardinals to vote for them.
- 9:02Speaker 1: Coming up, what kind of legacy will Pope Francis leave.
- 9:19Speaker 1: Pope Francis was a reformer, someone who's considered to have
- 9:22Speaker 1: changed the papacy forever. He was embraced by progressives who
- 9:27Speaker 1: celebrated his bucking of traditions and heralded his leadership as
- 9:31Speaker 1: a new era for the Catholic Church.
- 9:33Speaker 3: Pol Francis has discussed the possibility of relaxing the discipline
- 9:37Speaker 3: of priestly celibacy.
- 9:39Speaker 2: Pol Francis says Catholic priests can now bless same sex couples,
- 9:43Speaker 2: but not for marriage. Honesty, courage, and responsibility, three qualities
- 9:47Speaker 2: the pope says he wants everyone on earth to show
- 9:49Speaker 2: in the battle against climate change.
- 9:51Speaker 3: Poor Francis has offered his deepest apologies to the people
- 9:55Speaker 3: who suffer sexual abuse at the hand of Catholic priests, but.
- 10:01Speaker 1: More conservative Catholics felt he pushed the envelope too far,
- 10:05Speaker 1: and his unprecedented availability to the world's media and his
- 10:08Speaker 1: willingness to inject himself into global politics landed him in
- 10:12Speaker 1: hot water more than once. Now, the cardinals eligible to
- 10:17Speaker 1: vote in the conclave have a choice to make stay
- 10:21Speaker 1: the course towards modernity or re established traditions forged over centuries.
- 10:31Speaker 1: Jack Pope Francis was arguably the most visible pope in history,
- 10:34Speaker 1: both in terms of his presence in the media and
- 10:37Speaker 1: the notoriety of some of his reforms. What kind of
- 10:40Speaker 1: legacy will he leave, do you think?
- 10:42Speaker 2: I think Francis will most definitely be seen in an
- 10:47Speaker 2: affectionate way, in that he was incredibly well intentioned. Everybody
- 10:53Speaker 2: is very reflective of this pope as being incredibly humble,
- 10:59Speaker 2: somebody who was with the people, who wanted to help
- 11:03Speaker 2: the people and what is the church for? So he
- 11:08Speaker 2: reflected that very generous liberal way of the church and
- 11:12Speaker 2: trying to open up the church to a different way
- 11:16Speaker 2: and to modernize as well. But his successor will be
- 11:22Speaker 2: somebody who will cast their own views upon the church
- 11:26Speaker 2: and help guide the church in the way they want
- 11:28Speaker 2: to see it. Head So it's to be seen. We
- 11:32Speaker 2: won't know, but certainly upon the reflections of Francis, I
- 11:36Speaker 2: think you know the coming days we will see everybody
- 11:41Speaker 2: speak incredibly well of him and what he achieved. Whether
- 11:46Speaker 2: people liked it or not is another matter, but they
- 11:49Speaker 2: certainly cannot be critical of his intentions and his humbleness.
- 12:03Speaker 1: Jacqueline Magne is The Australian's europe correspondent. You can read
- 12:07Speaker 1: her reporting on the legacy of Pope Francis and the
- 12:09Speaker 1: upcoming conclave at the Australian dot Com dot Au