Giovanni Battista Re, the Dean of the
College of Cardinals, said Thursday that he hopes a new pontiff
will be elected at the conclave by the end of the day after the
election of Pope Francis's successor began in the Sistine Chapel
on Wednesday.
"I hope that when I return to Rome this evening I will find
white smoke already," Battista Re, who is not taking part in the
conclave because he is over 80, said during a visit to Pompei.
"I am particularly happy to be here at the beginning of the
conclave so that the Holy Spirit may blow strong, so that the
Pope that today's Church and the world needs may be elected.
"First of all (the new pope) will have to try to strengthen
faith in God in this world of ours characterised by
technological progress but which, on the spiritual side, we have
noticed a bit of 'forgetting God'."
"So there is the need for a reawakening".
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