We Are Church Intl.

Christian Weisner's letter from Rome

This morning we welcomed Prof. Michael Walsh from UK and Paul Collins and Marylin Hatton from Australia. Now we are only waiting for Vittorio Bellavite to arrive from Milan.

In the newspaper I read that 107 of the 115 cardinals who are allowed to vote have now arrived in Rome. I also read that Card. Schoenborn (who is allowed to vote) and Card. Vlk (who is to old to vote) are hoping for a Pope who is open to the world like John Paul II. There are other Cardinals who ask for more information about Vatileaks, who want to continue to clear up the sexual abuse cases within the church and who are asking for reform of the leadership of the Church.

The last issue was the one we also were working on today. We discussed in detail the content of our presentation on Thursday and our written document. We please to confirm that the background talk will take place on Thursday evening at 17:30 p.m at the Monastero delle Suore camaldolesi all'Aventino.

Just by chance I found an international / multilingual website www.voteforpope.net of the University of Montreal and other organisation where you can elect "your" candidate.

However we don't want to give our opinion about different candidates.

We find it much more important to express our expectations for the next Pontificat and to spread information about the different groups of cardinals. About 40 Cardinals are in close contact with  "Opus Dei" and about 20 cardinals are in close contact with "Movimento di Comunione e Liberazione". But even as a coalition they won't be strong enough to form a 2/3 majority. So there will be longer negotiations before and during the Conclave I guess.

Keep your fingers crossed that the Cardinals will come to a decision about the beginning of the Conclave soon.

From Christian Weisner in Rome:

Last evening we hurried to a beautiful church on the Isola Tibertina run by the Community of San'Egidio where Cardinal Schoenborn from Vienna/Austria was holding a service to commemorate a 20th century martyr. Many media people were present because Schoenborn is one of the "Papabile" and we talked to journalist from Italy, Austria, The Tablet and NCR whom we know from earlier events in Rome. All the journalists are only talking about the candidates. We put much more emphasis on the question how the hierarchical system has to be changed - because currently it is totally dysfunctional.  

In the evening it became known that the Cardinals might be decide about the beginning of the Conclave on Wednesday. Three German Cardinals (Meisner, Lehmann, Woelki) haven't arrived in Rome yet I read in the newspaper, but we do not know why.

Christian Weisner reports:

Martha Heizer and I arrived safely on Monday morning from the night train to Rome.  Basilio Buffoni arrived around the same time from Milan and all three of us proceeded to a meeting with Laura Laera for our first briefing. 

We are now waiting to welcome Anthony Padovano from the USA, Michael Walsh from England and Vittorio Bellavite from Milan.  Our next meeting will be this evening and will include discussion about the content and presentation of our pre-Conclave press conference.  Vittorio has alread been busy preparing our way in Rome so that we will be able to keep the media fully informed about current concerns and needs in the Church including our perception of the right person for the role of Bishop of Rome.  We are hoping that the Cardinals will announce the beginning of the Conclave very soon.

The six of us are very grateful to Valerie, Pedro and Christian for re-launching the website and installing Twitter.  We will be using this page to let you know about our work and adventures in the Eternal City.