The closed-door “general congregations” allow them to discuss the challenges the successor to Pope Francis will face before they are locked in the Sistine Chapel on Wednesday for the vote.
Walking through crowds of pilgrims and journalists for the morning meeting, the so-called “Princes of the Church” gave little away – not even speculating how long the conclave would last.
“We do not know, we just wait for the Lord to tell us,” said Cardinal William Seng Chye Goh, Archbishop of Singapore, seen as one of the more conservative prelates.
The cardinals were called to Rome from around the world after the death on April 21 of Francis, an energetic reformer from Argentina who led the Catholic Church for 12 years.
According to Vatican press director Matteo Bruni, 177 cardinals, including 127 aged under 80 and thus eligible to vote in the conclave, attended Saturday’s meeting.
On Wednesday, 133 cardinal electors will enter the Sistine Chapel and not leave until they have – after a series of secret ballots – given a two-thirds majority to Francis’s successor.
“We recognise his achievement but no pope is perfect, no one is able to do everything so we will find the best person to succeed St Peter,” Goh told reporters.
Cardinal Jean-Paul Vesco, archbishop of Algiers, said he hoped the conclave would choose a pope to follow in Francis’s progressive footsteps.
“We must discover the one the Lord has already chosen,” he said.
“We could have had much more time praying together, but I am sure that at the right moment we will be ready and we will give the Church the pope that the Lord has wanted.”
There will be two general congregation meetings on Monday, Bruni said.
Under Vatican tradition, the purpose of the meetings is to discuss general Church issues, not papal candidacies.
On Saturday, the cardinals gave thanks for Francis’s papacy and discussed peace-building around the world and the role of the Curia – the Church administration – in supporting the pope’s work.
Bruni said they expressed a “desire for the next pope to have a prophetic spirit, capable of leading a Church that does not close in on herself, but is able to go out and bring light to a world marked by despair.”
The papal election is being followed keenly by the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, while at least one non-Catholic leader has taken an unusual interest.
On Friday, US President Donald Trump posted a spoof picture of himself dressed as the pope on his Truth Social platform, after joking that he would like the job. (AFP)
