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VATICAN CITY: Arriving in Rome after Pope Francis’s death, Catholic cardinals have admitted some apprehension at the responsibility of choosing his successor, as they begin setting out what they hope to see in the next head of the Church.
The task of choosing a new pope to replace the Argentine, who died on Monday aged 88, “is beyond us and yet requires us,” said French cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline, summing up the mood after celebrating a mass on Thursday evening.
“We feel very small. We have to make decisions for the whole Church, so we really need to pray for ourselves,” added Luxembourg’s Jean-Claude Hollerich, a Jesuit who was a close adviser to Francis.
The conclave is likely to begin right after the nine days of mourning declared by the Holy See, which end on May 4, he said, adding that he was approaching the occasion with “great hope” but also “a certain apprehension.”
Cardinal electors — those aged under 80 — will choose a new leader for the 1.4-billion-strong Roman Catholic church behind the closed doors of the Sistine Chapel.
Playing out under Michelangelo’s frescoes, the process is often perceived as full of intrigue and machinations.
But Cardinal Francois-Xavier Bustillo, the bishop of Ajaccio in Corsica, said his fellow cardinals should eschew political games and listen to each other before deciding.
We must not act tactically or strategically,” he said. “We must serve and act responsibly.”

On Friday morning, all cardinals already in Rome — electors and those who are too old — gathered at the Vatican for their fourth meeting since Francis’s death.
Known as “general congregations,” these gatherings provide an opportunity to exchange views and discuss the priorities of the next pontificate.
With their trademark scarlet skullcaps, cardinals are not hard to spot around the colonnades of St. Peter’s Square — something that makes them an easy target for journalists hoping to get a steer on who the next pope might be.
“There’s a good atmosphere between us. It’s you who make the predictions,” Italy’s Fernando Filoni quipped to reporters as he entered a meeting. “We’re getting to know each other.”
Francis, who appointed 80 percent of the 135 electors eligible to choose his successor, prioritized the Global South and far-flung regions away from Rome when picking new cardinals.
British cardinal Vincent Nichols said the prospect of choosing the next pope was “quite intimidating frankly.”
Cardinals would do their “best work once the doors of the conclave have been shut,” he told the BBC, adding seclusion would allow for “peace and a prayerfulness between us.”
Yet cardinals have discretely begun work to narrow the list of candidates.
Asked whether the time had come for an African or Asian pope, Archbishop Hollerich replied: “Why not? But it’s not a given.”
Skills and personality were more important than geography, he said, adding that a pope would always be a unifying figure.
The ideal candidate would be a “simple man” who is “not too young nor too old,” “can connect with people” and “knows how to listen” to both those on the left and on the right, he said.
However German cardinal Gerhard Muller, a staunch conservative who was among the leading voices opposing Francis’s progressive approach, said the Church risked a schism if it elected another liberal.
“The question is not between conservatives and liberals but between orthodoxy and heresy,” he told British newspaper The Times.
Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga of Honduras said he hoped for a pontiff who would carry Francis’s torch.
“A simple, humble person. A pontiff who will break up the power struggles in the Church,” he told Italian daily La Stampa.
Aged 82, he will not have a say in the selection but remains hopeful.
“I am convinced that in the end everyone will have common sense. Cardinals are not people without faith,” he said.

KYIV: President Donald Trump said in an interview published on Friday that “Crimea will stay with Russia,” the latest example of the US leader pressuring Ukraine to make concessions to end the war while it remains under siege.
“Zelensky understands that,” Trump said, referring to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, “and everybody understands that it’s been with them for a long time.”
The US president made the comments in a Time magazine interview conducted on Tuesday. Trump has been accusing Zelensky of prolonging the war by resisting negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Crimea is a strategic peninsula along the Black Sea in southern Ukraine. It was seized by Russia in 2014, while President Barack Obama was in office, years before the full-scale invasion that began in 2022.
“They’ve had their submarines there for long before any period that we’re talking about, for many years. The people speak largely Russian in Crimea,” Trump said. “But this was given by Obama. This wasn’t given by Trump.”
Meanwhile, Russia has continued its bombardment. A drone struck an apartment building in a southeastern Ukraine city, killing three people and injuring 10 others, officials said Friday, a day after Trump rebuked Russia’s leader for a deadly missile and drone attack on Kyiv.
A child and a 76-year-old woman were among the civilians killed in the nighttime drone strike in Pavlohrad, in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, the head of the regional administration, Serhii Lysak, wrote on Telegram.
Russian forces fired 103 Shahed and decoy drones at five Ukrainian regions overnight, Ukraine’s air force reported. Authorities in the northeastern Sumy and Kharkiv regions reported damage to civilian infrastructure but no casualties.
The war could be approaching a pivotal moment as the Trump administration weighs its options. Senior US officials have warned that the administration could soon give up attempts to stop the war if the two sides do not come to an agreement. That could potentially mean a halt of US military aid for Ukraine.
Amid the peace efforts, Russia pounded Kyiv in an hourslong barrage Thursday, killing at least 12 people and injuring 87 in its deadliest assault on the Ukrainian capital since July.
The attack drew a rare rebuke of Russian President Vladimir Putin from Trump, who has said that a push to end the war is coming to a head.
“I am not happy with the Russian strikes on KYIV. Not necessary, and very bad timing. Vladimir, STOP! 5000 soldiers a week are dying.” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform. “Lets get the Peace Deal DONE!”
Trump’s frustration is growing as his effort to forge a deal between Ukraine and Russia has failed to achieve a breakthrough.
Trump envoy Steve Witkoff was expected to meet with Putin in Moscow on Friday, their second meeting this month and the fourth since February.
Trump accused Zelensky on Wednesday of prolonging the “killing field” by refusing to surrender the Russia-occupied Crimea Peninsula as part of a possible deal. Russia illegally annexed that area in 2014. Zelensky has repeated many times during the war that recognizing occupied territory as Russian is a red line for his country.
Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky plan to arrive in Rome on Friday for the funeral of Pope Francis in the Vatican’s St. Peter’s Square on Saturday. It wasn’t immediately clear if they would meet separately.
An explosion in Moscow targets a senior officer
Meanwhile, a senior Russian military officer was killed by a car bomb near Moscow on Friday, Russia’s top criminal investigation agency said.
The attack follows the killing of Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov on Dec. 17, 2024, when a bomb hidden on an electric scooter parked outside his apartment building exploded as he left for his office. Russian authorities blamed Ukraine for the killing of Kirillov.
Since Russia invaded, several prominent figures have been killed in targeted attacks believed to have been carried out by Ukraine.
Russian forces used Thursday’s attack on Kyiv as cover to launch almost 150 assaults on Ukrainian positions along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, Zelensky said late Thursday.
“When the maximum of our forces was focused on defense against missiles and drones, the Russians went on to significantly intensify their ground attacks,” he wrote on Telegram.
Western European leaders have accused Putin of dragging his feet in the negotiations and seeking to grab more Ukrainian land while his army has battlefield momentum.
Zelensky noted Thursday that Ukraine agreed to a US ceasefire proposal 44 days ago, as a first step to a negotiated peace, but that Russian attacks continued.
During recent talks, Russia hit the city of Sumy, killing more than 30 civilians gathered to celebrate Palm Sunday, battered Odesa with drones and blasted Zaporizhzhia with powerful glide bombs.