

The conclave to elect a new pope will begin on May 7 in the Sistine Chapel, following the decision taken on Monday by the cardinals in the fifth general congregation, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni confirmed.
The more than 180 cardinals present at the meeting, more than a hundred of whom are electors, decided on the date after a meeting that lasted around two hours and in which, after the initial prayer, the cardinals who had not done so took the oath.
During the congregation, 20 cardinals spoke about the Church, its relationship with the world, and the characteristics that the new pope should have in the face of these challenges, the spokesman said.
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Among those who addressed the rest of the cardinals were German Reinhard Marx, Archbishop of Munich and Freising; Filipino Luis Antonio Tagle, Pro-Prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, and French Dominique Mamberti, Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura.
The agenda for May 7
On the morning of May 7, the cardinals will celebrate the ‘Pro eligendo pontifice’ Mass and in the afternoon they will go to the Sistine Chapel to proceed to the oath of the cardinals and begin the election
The meeting addressed the issue, although no decision was taken, of the possible participation or not of Cardinal Angelo Becciu, from whom Francis removed the privileges of a cardinal because of his involvement in a financial scandal for which he has been convicted, but he insists that he retains the prerogatives to enter the conclave.
Cardinals who hardly know each other
In these first contacts, the cardinals from 71 different countries recognize that they have had little time to get to know each other and therefore need time to familiarize themselves, compare opinions and identify possible candidates.
Of the 133 who will enter the Sistine Chapel, 108, 80%, were chosen by Pope Francis in his 12 years of pontificate and ten consistories, but this does not indicate that they are all ‘Bergoglians‘, many of them have not seen each other in their lives because they come from places as peripheral as Mongolia, Iran or Papua New Guinea, and come from very different realities and with completely divergent ideas.
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