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.