Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Jo McKenna: Rome Correspondent discusses the upcoming conclave to select new Pope

Transcript

Jo McKenna: Rome Correspondent discusses the upcoming conclave to select new Pope · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Papal politics well underway now that Pope Francis has been
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: laid to rest your purists, they argue the Vatican's gone
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: a bit woke. Too much focus on inclusion and diversity,
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: not enough talk about the Bible and how it can
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: be quite well strict actually on a lot of social stuff.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: The conclave must start by May tenth at the latest.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Our Rome correspondent Joe McKenna is at the Vatican for
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: us this morning. Joe, Welcome to the show.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Hello Ryanhi, very.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Well, thank you and nice to have you at the
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Vatican for us. So this is all starting to get
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: a bit political. What actually happens now and when does
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: the conclave have to start?
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: Well, the politics, of course is fascinating. It's very medieval.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: After the pope's death, the conclave has to start within
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: fifteen to two days, so we're expecting that to get underway,
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: probably Monday or Tuesday next week.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: What do you rate the chances of them going even
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: more progressive than from answers was or do you think
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: it's going to go the other way? And Elena bit
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: more conservative.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: Look, it's an interesting time and the conservatives were very angry,
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: very upset with Pope Francis, even though he was so
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: loved and so popular. You're right, as you said earlier,
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: there was a concern that he was too ambiguous on
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: things like gay rights and the role of women in
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: the church, and whether divorces should be allowed to have communion.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: They didn't like it. They didn't like him being buried
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: in a very simple coffin. They didn't like his informality.
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: They didn't like the fact that he gave up all
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: the traditional robes and the papal apartment and decided to
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: live out the back in a little tiny room in
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: the cars of Santa Mata. So these conservatives are pushing
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: back big time, and there is a lot of toing
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: and froing going on behind the scenes right now. The
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: other thing that's interesting, I ran into a Vatican insider
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: last night who had a scene your position no longer,
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: and he told me off the record, the Italians want
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: to see a European pope. They want to see an
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: Italian pope. And even though the Italians don't have a
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: huge number in terms of the total electors, there are
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: only about sixteen Italians, he said, they have enormous influence.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: They see it as a family business, and they didn't
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: like the fact that some outsider came in from Argentina
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: and shook things up.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: That's me, Joe. It's interesting because there's one hundred I mean,
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: just the word family business and Italian. It's a dangerous combinent,
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: dangerous combination. Anyway, the one hundred and thirty cardinals who
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: were there, I was reading yesterday that you know, obviously
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: Francis appointed a lot of them, and a lot of
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: them don't you know each other. They've never meet each
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: other before. They're from far flying parts of the world.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: This is almost going to be like the first day
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: of school when they get together.
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a very good way of putting it. They've
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: had a couple of meetings already, but things will really
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: crank up tomorrow. They've got this old fashioned thing where
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: they don't really like to say too much before the
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: funeral itself, but things will really crank up. And as
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: you said, you know, there are a lot of newcomers. They're
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: being sworn in before. They have what's called these congregations
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: where it's really an opportunity for the players to showcase
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: what their papacy would be like. And that's what really
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: happened with Pope Francis when he gave a speech way
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: back in twenty thirteen. It really moved the cardinals to
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: get behind him because he had a vision for how
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: he wanted to take the church. Not all of them
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: were happy with what happened, but that's really what happened
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: behind closed doors. And so we've had some of the
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: cardinals meeting, not all of them there that will step
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: up tomorrow. And don't forget the cardinals that cannot vote
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: in the conclave also take part in these meetings. So
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: you've got the elderly cardinals over the age of eighty
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: who will also have some influence on the newcomers in
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: terms of the direction of the conclave.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: Joe, thank you very much for that. Great to have
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: you on the show. As always, Joe mckinna, our Rome
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: correspondent at the Vatican.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: to News Talks it'd be from five am weekdays, or
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.