Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, told Newsmax on Wednesday that the papal conclave that began earlier in the day was the most diverse ever and "a sign of who the Catholic Church really is."
"The cardinals present in that conclave are a very good representation of the Catholic Church," Cordileone said on "American Agenda." "We encompass countries all over the globe of all different races and all different languages. ... Pope Paul VI in the 1970s saw the need to internationalize the Roman Curia, to bring priests and religious workers from all over the world so the church can be better connected all around the globe. And as he said, now we see the full flourishing of that 50 years later with that internationalization. … We're a church for everyone all over the world."
Cordileone said the diversity of the College of Cardinals might lead to a longer conclave than in previous years because they might need more time to gain an understanding of one another.
"Many of these cardinals are from more remote places in the world," he said. "They're not familiar with Rome and the Roman Curia. They haven't had opportunities to meet together, so they don't know each other very well. So, it would not be surprising if this conclave takes a little longer than the previous conclaves, so they can have more time to sort of assess who each other is, what their strengths are, and who might be best suited for the office of the successor of St. Peter."
Asked what language the cardinals are conducting the conclave in, Cordileone said, "To be honest, I've been wondering that myself."
"Many, many years ago, going back to the time of the Second Vatican Council, Latin was much more part of the life of the church, and any priest who would rise to the rank of a bishop would have been capable in Latin," he said. "The Second Vatican Council was conducted all in Latin, and the synods of bishops that came after the council had language groups, but, up until the 1990s, there was a Latin language group in addition to a number of other languages. Now that that is not so prominent in the life of the church, Italian sort of became the standard language for communication in the church.
"Customarily, cardinals would have had some experience of Rome, as a student or working in the Curia or doing seminary work in Rome, and would have acquired Italian. So, Italian was more the common language of communication. I would imagine now that is less so. Of course, many people around the world, especially in the church, speak English as a second language or speak Spanish as a first or second language, so, I think most of the cardinals would have some language in common, that they could communicate one-on-one to each other with."
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