The Catholic News Service (CNS) is reporting that Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga of Tegucigalpa said the meetings, known as general congregations, will first address business matters related to the operation of the world's largest church, and will then take up the task of deciding when to begin the conclave in which the successor to Pope Benedict XVI will be chosen.During these initial meetings, they will also be examining the rules for the conclave and will discuss the main challenges facing the Church at the present time.
Having participated in the 2005 conclave, Cardinal Maradiaga told CNS that the general congregations usually begin with a broad discussion, then breaks up into small groups according to continent in order to better define the specific issues at hand.
When asked if there are "secret meetings" in backrooms and restaurants before the conclave, he said: "These are stories. I never had those kinds of meetings during the last conclave. It's a different thing trying to elect a pope than vote for a candidate of a (political) party. We, instead of thinking of candidates, we think of the main challenges, the main problems, and then try to think, in prayer, who can be the best-suited person for facing those challenges and trying to help the church."
He did say that it is very possible that the cardinal-electors will look outside Europe for the next pope, "but it's not a matter of nationality or where you were born. It's a matter of the main problems of the church and the person who could answer, no matter where he was bor," he clarified.
"But, of course, the church is growing in the American continent. We have the majority of Catholics in the world, which is a very interesting factor to take into consideration," he said. "Asia is the big challenge and the big horizon because it has more than one-third of the population of the whole world and the least number of Catholics, so for the missionary aspect, it will be important. Africa is flourishing in hope and growing in numbers of Catholics."
The Church is a transcendent, divine and spiritual institution that is made up of human beings and lives in the world, he said, which means "the main problem of the church is how to announce the message of God," especially in cultures where God's existence is denied.
He also warned about using political labels such as "conservative" or "liberal" to define the cardinals, saying these labels are inaccurate and say more about the person doing the labeling than about the cardinals themselves.
In electing a new pope, Cardinal Maradiaga said he will look for "a person of faith, a person of love with a big heart to understand, especially, the human sufferings of today and to understand we are only servants, not kings."
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