Cardinal Pizzaballa this morning towards the cropped meetings
We are as of May 6, the eve of the Conclave and the General Congregation of the Morning is one of the last occasions to see the cardinals, voters and not, before their transfer to Santa Marta. The number of cameras, photographers and journalists increases. Thus the security measures around the cardinals have become more stringent. There are also more and more cardinals who come by car. But someone, even on the eve, moves on foot.
Among the most mornings of today there is the “papabile” Pierbattista Pizzaballa. The Patriarch of Jerusalem comes out quickly from a door near the colonnade shortly after 8:30 and remains imperturbable in front of the assault of the reporters who shout questions about Gaza and the Israeli military operations. Pizzaballa does not speak, does not get upset and pulls straight protected by a policeman, then walks under the colonnade and finally enters the Vatican greeted by the Swiss guards. For televisions only the images remain, the microphones are useless.
Journalists are largely stationed near the colonnade. The corner between Largo degli Aicorni and via Paolo VI is the most propitious for the meetings. Here, in recent days the always smiling and kind Austrian cardinal has stopped Christoph Maria Michael Hugo Damian Peter Adalbert Schönbornnoble origins, Vienna emeritus archbishop since January of this year. Eighty -year -old, Schönborn, will not enter conclave and a few days ago he explained that “we elderly cardinals are here to listen a lot and speak little”. Amabile person, with a smile also in the eyes, at the end of his last mass in the cathedral of Santo Stefano before becoming “emeritus”, the President of the Austrian Republic Alexander Van der Bellen, greeted him in Italian saying: “I love you, we all love you”.
Another cardinal always available with the reporters, to the point of meeting you with his hand tense to hold it, is Jean-Paul Vesco, 63 years old, the former French lawyer who became Dominican, Archbishop of Algiers since 2021 and Cardinal since December 2024. Vesco is a runneralso runs the marathons, and arrives at a charge from the Aventine with the backpack on the shoulder. Needless to say, journalists cheer for him, even if he is considered too young a “eligible”.
Today he arrives on foot, crossing a Square San Pietro Assolata, Louis Raphael I SakoCatholic patriarch of the Caldei, representative of that Iraqi church visited by Francesco in March 2021. Sako always wears sunglasses and has no desire to speak. The more talkative is Andalusian José Cobo Canothe not yet sixty -year -old cardinal archbishop of Madrid. He does not say much, but greets some Spanish journalists who call him loudly and make him return to his steps when he had already messed the fourth on the churchyard of St. Peter’s Square. While leaving, a man shouts him: “Bring peace to the world, we can’t take more than war!”. Another young cardinal who arrives on foot is Francis Leo54 years old, the archbishop of Toronto son of Italian immigrants. Hong Kong cardinal do not stop with journalists, Stephen Chow Sau-Yanand the slender Cardinal African Ignace bessi dogbo63 years old, archbishop of Abidjan (ivory coast), today with a scarf around the neck that protects him from the moisture of the morning.
He arouses respect and veneration the arrival of the Swedish cardinal Anders Arborelius75 years old, Lutheran converted to Catholicism, Archbishop of Stockholm. A name and an aspect worthy of a character of “The name of the rose” of Eco. Arborelius wears the Carmelite habit, a pair of canvas shoes and in the right hand brings a briefcase.
The possibility of wearing the habit by cardinals belonging to monastic orders is not a whim, but has ancient roots. “I am a monk and cardinal and in my figure I try to unite these two rivers that flow in my life, but certainly it is not always easy”, Arborelius confides in it as he starts towards the congregation. We ask him as a country with little Catholics like Sweden is experiencing these days. “There is great attention, the whole Swedish society has shown its sincere pain for Francesco’s death. Then there is also curiosity to see the photo of a Swedish cardinal in the newspapers, many even know that in Sweden there is a cardinal. Let’s say that for my country it is a very interesting moment”. Before saying goodbye to Cardinal Arborelius, without obviously making names, he tells us who will have to be the next Pope: “Someone who can help the world to rediscover Christ and promote the Gospel”.
