From Rome, Jean-Paul Vesco returned this Friday on the speed of this conclave, which surprised the cardinals present in the Sistine Chapel with him.
With a general average of 2.5 days to elect a pope, Leon XIV, the first American pope in history, was appointed by the 133 cardinals after 24 hours. This election aroused the international excitement of its faithful, but also on the side of the 132 cardinals.
This was the case of Cardinal Jean-Paul Vesco. Interviewed on BFMTV from Rome this Friday, May 9, this archbishop of Algiers, explains that he and the other cardinals were the first surprised by the duration of the conclave.
“This speed surprised us ourselves,” said Cardinal Jean-Paul Vesco. A little before the start of the conclave, Cardinal Salvadorien Gregorio Rosa Chavez explained to the Reuters agency that the election of the sovereign pontiff was to last “three days maximum”.
At the end of the first vote on Wednesday, in the Sistine Chapel, Jean-Paul Vesco noted a “diversity” of the votes. Indeed, the cardinals tend to vote for their favorite in the first round, before starting a possible change in their votes according to the trends during the following rounds.
“Mysteriously, the consensus was done”
After 24 hours of conclave and four ballot, white smoke escaped Thursday at 6:08 p.m.
-“Suddenly, mysteriously, the consensus had one vote on the other, without there being any possibility of speech, without there being any voting instructions,” he detailed with our antenna.
In the Sistine Chapel, Jean-Paul Vesco indicates that the cardinals were invaded by “deep joy”.
“We felt that this pope inspired everyone, he has an experience that makes him from all the continents (…) he visited the whole world,” said the cardinal located in Algiers.
Discreet, moderate, American: Who is Léon XIV, the 267th Pope of history?
Jean-Paul Vesco also said he was “sure” that Léon XIV is the pope “that it was necessary for (the) church today”. “Obviously, that makes Léon XIII think, the father of the social doctrine of the Church,” added Cardinal Vesco (…) he will necessarily be part of this line, “he concluded.
If this new election was relatively rapid, the shortest conclave in history only lasted ten hours: it was the election of Pope Jules II in 1503. More recently, the shortest conclaves lasted a single day, especially during the election of Pius XII in 1939, after three rounds of election.
