On Friday March 8, 2013, the "preliminaries" were over and after a vote, the College of Cardinals announced that the Conclave would begin Tuesday , March 12, 2013 to "get down to the business of selecting a Pope." The "preliminaries" are an essential prerequisite to the selection process. The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi said . "The preparation is absolutely fundamental" , explaining that : "The pre-conclave meetings had given the cardinals a chance to discuss the "profile, characteristics, qualities and talents" a future pope must have.
Those closed-door deliberations, he said, provided an opportunity for discussion and information-gathering so the cardinals could go into the conclave ready to cast their ballots."
U.S. Cardinal Timothy Dolan, considered a papal contender, said in a blog post Friday that this week's preliminary discussions covered preaching and teaching the Catholic faith, tending to Catholic schools and hospitals, protecting families and the unborn, supporting priests "and getting more of them!"
"Those are the 'big issues,'" he wrote. "You may find that hard to believe, since the 'word on the street' is that all we talk about is corruption in the Vatican, sexual abuse, money. Do these topics come up? Yes! Do they dominate? No!"
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/cardinals-set-tuesday-start-date-conclave
