The Cardinals in Santa Marta towards the Conclave: the leaks of the brushed fridge-bar and the tricks so as not to lose tennis

Al Caffè dei Papi (inevitable) of via Vespasian, between the Vatican Museums and Piazza San Pietro, the retired archbishop Anselmo Guido Pecorari79 years old, Mantuan, stopped for a sandwich and a beer after the second day Mass of Novediali: «Today I’m light – it shields himself – but last night with my cardinal friend Mario ZenariVeronese, apostolic nuncio in Syria, we were at the restaurant The tavernon the corner of via Candia and via Tunisi and we brushed excellent Roman artichokes that I don’t tell you. A dish that makes him crazy, not the artichokes in Syria finds them … ».

Dinners at the restaurant

Little is now there Conclave and Rome, Every day that passes, the cardinals arrive from all over the world.
And what they do, waiting for the Sistine? « Eh, what do they do? – Sighs the Archbishop Pecorari, friend of Many red caps even papabiles -. They speak, they know each other, they sniff with each other and slowly begin to trace the identikit of what will be the next pontiff after Francesco. And I assure you that it is better to do it by talking to the restaurant rather than in Santa Marta: outside the table, in fact, you can be quieter and above all far from prying ears. The only problem is to finish dinner Before 10.30pm, otherwise at the Petriano entrance you have to ask for permission from the Swiss guards to return ».

At the Petriano entrance, as well as at the Porta del Perugino, the pontifical guards, however, are not going to go to Cerberi: « We all know the cardinals – says a young man wearing the uniform characteristic of blue, red and dark yellow gala -. Even if they are slow, we still make them enter without problems ».

Santa Marta like a hotel

Santa Marta, where he lived and is Died Pope Francisit is the residence that will host the cardinal voters during the conclave: « It is like a hotel and for this you have to be careful », says the pecoring archbishop. «I can’t tell you the name because he is a dear friend of mine, but a foreign cardinal who thought it was all for free, he invited a little colleagues to the room to chat after dinner and so soon They finished all the mignon liqueurs of the fridge-bar. Only then he found them on the account And it remained badly ».

Days

Yes, a glass takes it. These are hard days, these, to be crossed. Between the enormous pain for Francesco’s departure and the tension that weighs on the shoulders of cardinal voters to choose the successor. All days the same, those of the eve: you have to go to the Paul VI Hall twice a day for the general congregations, participate in San Pietro at the masses of the novediale, visit the reference churches, meet the faithful. So there are those who try every now and then to relax: the Spanish cardinal Santos Abril y Castelló, for example, is a tennis enthusiast And as soon as you can make a game. « Just he hates losing – reveals his sheep friend – and as he invented an excamotage: when the game throws badly he nods his assistant off the pitch, who after a few seconds, while the match is in progress, interrupts him saying that someone is urgently looking for the cardinal urgently on the phone. And the set is safe … »

Mauricio JardinBrazilian, bishop in Mato Grosso, says instead that the preferred pastime by his cardinal friend Jaime SpenglerArchbishop of Porto Alegre, are cards: «Play cards with my mother Cecy too – adds the bishop -. In Santa Marta you will have to satisfy colleagues « 

Ice ice cream in the dairy

In these days you can find them, the cardinals, drawn to La Rustichella on the corner of via Emo or by Marcantonio In Borgo Pio, preferred by Italian caps for his mythological Carbonara. «I recommended, however, especially to my English and American friends, of Leave the red guise in the college and to put the cardinal ring in the pocketWhy The hosts otherwise take advantage of it and strand them above all on wine»Says Pecorari.

It seems that strange things happen, when the cardinals enter the premises. There is not alone the multiplication of the price of the wine. The other day, two in Borgo Pio entered the historic Latteria Giulianithey wanted an ice cream, there were so many people and a sudden of customers literally knelt for the blessing: there were a little embarrassment, the two of them shyly nodded to people to get up, but cream and pistachio they seriously risked dissolving.

The archbishop Ignazio Sanna, Pontifical Commissioner of the Abbey of Farfa (Rieti), accompanied the other day to visit her his friend Coreano Cardinal Lazarus you heung-sikamong other things, among the papabili by the lovers of the « Fantapapa ». Sanna says that the rooms in Santa Marta are assigned « by drawing » so no one protests. While we speak, in Piazza della Città Leonina, however, another favored cardinal, the African Robert Sarahwhich comes from Guinea but lives a stone’s throw away. When he understands that the question is if he feels in competition with the Korean You, the friend of Sanna, the Cardinal of Guinea closes the heavy door behind him and says that he must run to prepare to go to pray in front of the tomb of Francesco, in Santa Maria Maggiore, with the other cardinals. And this is true.

The election campaign

«But now The election campaign started. Why The Holy Spirit inspires but does not vote. And therefore an agreement will have to find it sooner or later », jokes Sanna, very sardine like the cardinal Angelo Becciufor whose admission in Conclave after Francesco’s « Scarinalare » of Francesco will decide – confirms the archbishop of Oristano – in the next few days with a vote of the Sacred College.

Al Caffè dei Papi Meanwhile, Monsignor Pecorari, former Nunzio in Ruanda, Uruguay (where he met Bergoglio), Bulgaria and Macedonia, gets up because he has to take a train to return to Mantua: « You know that Is Tagle these days terrified?« , request.

But who? Luis Antonio Gokim Tagle, Cardinal Filipino who also appears among the favorites? « Yes – concludes the archbishop -. Because years ago He started singing in a place Image by John Lennon and the video in these days has become viral. I believe that little will come out here in Rome ».