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Speaker 1: So the famed conclave about to get underway in Rome.

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Speaker 1: One hundred and thirty three cardinals at Vatican City. They

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Speaker 1: go inside. They don't come out until the white smoke

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Speaker 1: is seen by the world. So what do we know,

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Speaker 1: Mark O'Connor. Catholic journalists in Vatican City at the moment,

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Speaker 1: as with us, make morning to you.

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Speaker 2: Good morning.

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Speaker 1: How fascinating times.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well, they're very hectic and frenetic. There are four

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Speaker 2: thousand journalists here in Rome accredited. There's a lot of rumors,

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Speaker 2: a lot of gossip, a lot of theories, a lot

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Speaker 2: of discussions about what will happen next. But one thing

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Speaker 2: is for certain. Tomorrow evening Rome. By tomorrow afternoon Rome time,

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Speaker 2: they will process into the Sistine Chapel and they really

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Speaker 2: effectively won't come out until the white smoke and the

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Speaker 2: new pope is elected. So, yeah, it's fascinating us to

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Speaker 2: see what's going to evolve. There are a number of options,

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Speaker 2: but I think, you know, I'm pretty optimistic myself as

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Speaker 2: to where things will go, you know, continuing on the

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Speaker 2: legacy of Coparansis. I don't think there's going to be

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Speaker 2: any dramatic reverse. A few cardinals there are a few

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Speaker 2: cardinals who are who are kind of been loudly kind

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Speaker 2: of having their go in the early days of the

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Speaker 2: pre conclave meetings, but I don't think there are any

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Speaker 2: of the ending but a minority.

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Speaker 1: Very interesting because I was reading about the College of

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Speaker 1: Cardinals report, which is available online, but it was made

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Speaker 1: into a book, and the book was handed out and

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Speaker 1: this is some sort of sure yeah yea yeah yeah,

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Speaker 1: and so yeah, wow, that's not going to happen.

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Speaker 2: No, I mean that that College of Cardinals reports is

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Speaker 2: funded by you know, right wing Republican Trumpists Catholics who

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Speaker 2: have been opponents of Pope Francis, and they they've been

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Speaker 2: trying to find and dig up dirt on all sorts

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Speaker 2: of prospective candidates for the papacy that they don't like.

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Speaker 2: But you know, I mean, nobody's perfect, and plenty of

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Speaker 2: bishops and cardinals have made mistakes and nobody and the

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Speaker 2: one who's elected isn't going to be perfect either. However,

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Speaker 2: I think, you know, doing those sorts of hit jobs,

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Speaker 2: they might give themselves personal satisfaction those people, but they

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Speaker 2: have no impact on the cardinals. The cardinals buying group

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Speaker 2: by larger a group of people who are pretty common sense,

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Speaker 2: reasonable decent people, and they don't like his jobs on

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Speaker 2: their fellow colleagues, et cetera. So yeah, I mean I

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Speaker 2: think there are I would put it in terms of

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Speaker 2: a driving analogy. There are there are when you're driving

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Speaker 2: a car, there are some who we're trying to reverse

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Speaker 2: the car that paye France has started, which is reform

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Speaker 2: of the church, I think in a sensible, moderate way.

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Speaker 2: There are others who wanted to go forward, but say,

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Speaker 2: oh well, he caused a little bit disruption. You know,

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Speaker 2: he wasn't a typical he was an Argentinian pope. He

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Speaker 2: caused some people didn't like him. Most people did. In fact,

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Speaker 2: a lot of people who weren't Catholics liked him more

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Speaker 2: than some Catholics. And so they say, you know, oh well,

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Speaker 2: let's sort of sort of slow things down. We don't

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Speaker 2: want to reverse things, but we'll just put the brake

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Speaker 2: on a bit. And then there are others who I

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Speaker 2: think want to go into cruise control and say, and

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Speaker 2: I think they're the majority of you, say, look, we're

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Speaker 2: never going to get another of paid for France. But

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Speaker 2: he was completely unique. But we definitely need somebody who

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Speaker 2: is going to take the jurch forward in a new

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Speaker 2: age where you've got Trump and Putin and a whole

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Speaker 2: very chaotic, you know, world at war, you know, and

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Speaker 2: the guards are in all these things. And I think

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Speaker 2: they they're going to look for somebody like Pape Francis

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Speaker 2: who can connect with people, because he's not just going

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Speaker 2: to be the pope for Catholics. He's going to be

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Speaker 2: the pope who needs to talk to human beings, you know,

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Speaker 2: about their fundamental rights and dignity. And Francis was great

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Speaker 2: at that. So I think that's going to give you.

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Speaker 2: And there's another group who I think the two Jesuit

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Speaker 2: cardinals are very prominent people that are in the conclave.

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Speaker 2: They're more accelerators, you know. I think they'll have interesting

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Speaker 2: things to say. But I think it's more likely it's

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Speaker 2: going to come from a moderate progressive And the Italians

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Speaker 2: really want the papacy back. They haven't had it for

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Speaker 2: forty they haven't had it for forty five years. But

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Speaker 2: there's only seventeen cardinals that are Italian, you know, out

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Speaker 2: of one hundred and thirty three, and the Italians, the

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Speaker 2: Italians are notoriously divided amongst themselves. So I don't think

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Speaker 2: they're going to get their candidate. He was Cardinal parallel

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Speaker 2: in the Secretary of State, who's a fine man, but

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Speaker 2: he's a diplomat and you know he can't you know,

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Speaker 2: he hasn't. I've got a lot of charisma with people,

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Speaker 2: and he's but he's a beautiful man, but you know,

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Speaker 2: he lacks that quality to connect with people. I think

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Speaker 2: the cardinals are going to really want to have somebody

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Speaker 2: who has a little bit of charisma and connects with

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Speaker 2: ordinary people as well.

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Speaker 1: Mike, we've got to move it on, but I appreciate

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Speaker 1: it very much. Mike O'Connor, brother Mike O'Connor out of

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Speaker 1: Vatican City. We'll see what happens. We'll wait for the

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Speaker 1: white smoke.

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