Mourning period also a time for quiet politicking

ROME — Pope John Paul II's funeral Mass on Friday began nine days of spiritual mourning, but it also opened a political chapter — the subtle campaigning before the gathering of cardinals in a conclave starting April 18 to elect a successor.

Each day of mourning is marked by a Mass, several of which will be celebrated by cardinals — whose voices will be listened to closely for any hints about what direction they are moving in. The first is on Saturday afternoon, celebrated by Cardinal Francesco Marchisano, a career Vatican official who is the archpriest of St. Peter's Basilica.

In the days before the conclave begins, it is very likely that the cardinals will begin to conduct quiet research on who they think would make the best leader of the church. Some may even, in the softest of Roman ways, politick for the job, although any sign of eagerness could have a negative effect.

Almost all of the 117 cardinals who will place their ballots in a special vessel in the Sistine Chapel were in Rome on Friday. Until the conclave starts a week from Monday, with a morning Mass and afternoon procession from the Hall of Benedictions in the Apostolic Palace to the Sistine Chapel, they have free rein of the city and the Vatican. When the conclave starts, they will be sequestered in the Vatican's Santa Marta residence, which John Paul had built to provide some comfort for cardinals in conclave.

John Paul, in his 1996 blueprint for handling papal transitions, said two churchmen must deliver to the cardinals "well-prepared meditations on the problems facing the church at the time and the need for careful discernment in choosing the new pope." The men must be "known for their sound doctrine, wisdom and moral authority."

The Vatican announced that the first, the Rev. Raniero Cantalamessa, the preacher of the papal household, would deliver his talk on Thursday. The Rev. Cantalamessa entered the public eye on March 25, Good Friday, when he spoke during a service in St. Peter's Basilica, when the pope was in the last stages of his illness, saying, "Come back soon, Holy Father. Easter isn't Easter without you."

The other will be given by an eminent theologian, Cardinal Thomas Spidlik, a Czech-born Jesuit, on the conclave's first day. Cardinal Spidlik, at 85, is too old to vote. He was elevated to cardinal two years ago.