Cardinals moved into the Vatican on Tuesday as the suspense mounted ahead of a secret papal election with no clear frontrunner to steer the Catholic world through troubled waters after Benedict XVI’s historic resignation.
The Vatican on Saturday installed a special chimney on the Sistine Chapel from which white smoke will signal the election of a new pope as cardinals prepare for the historic vote next week after Benedict XVI’s resignation.
Out of the 115-member conclave that will elect the next Pope, Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle is one of only two cardinals who show “promising” signs of dealing adequately with the sex abuse scandal rocking the Roman Catholic Church, according to a US-based group of clergy sex abuse victims.
It’s an election but there are no campaign posters, no official candidates and even the people who might get voted in to the Vatican’s top job protest they absolutely do not want it.
The world’s top political and religious leaders expressed shock and regret Monday at Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation, but declared respect for his tenure and leadership of 1.1 billion Catholics.
Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday elevated six churchmen, including the Philippines’ Archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle, to cardinals, bringing a more geographically diverse mix to the elite club that will elect the next pope.
Pope Benedict XVI has named Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle and five other prelates from Lebanon, Nigeria, Colombia, India and the United States as new cardinals.
Pope Benedict XVI will name seven new saints on Sunday including the first Native American and a Filipino martyr, marking the start of a “Year of Faith” aimed at countering the rising tide of secularism in the West.
Vice President Jejomar Binay will be representing President Benigno Aquino III in witnessing, along with thousands of Filipinos, the canonization of Blessed Pedro Calungsod on October 21 at the Vatican City.
Philippine authorities said Friday they had launched a nationwide investigation into Catholic devotees collecting religious figures made of “blood” ivory smuggled from Africa.
Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle is one the “Synod Fathers” named by Pope Benedict XVI for the upcoming assembly of bishops on the New Evangelization.
Church leaders on Wednesday condemned the killing of a 67-year-old Dutch aid worker in Angeles City and urged President Benigno Aquino to seriously act on the rising incidence of extrajudicial killings in the country.
