As the cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church on Monday walked to and from meetings they're undertaking in preparation to choose the next pope, journalists and tourists alike watched and tried to pry information from them.
Among the cardinals was Raymond Burke, formerly the archbishop of St. Louis and the prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, the highest juridical authority of the Catholic church, during Pope Benedict XVI's pontificate.
In this video, Burke walks out of a meeting of the cardinals' general congregation Monday afternoon. He is seen wearing a black hat as he walks from Paul VI Hall, the general meeting hall where the cardinals had gathered, into St. Peter's Square.
Earlier that morning, Burke was seen praying with a rosary at his side as he walked into the congregation meeting.
A great gift idea! Give a subscription to National Catholic Reporter.
He holds in his hand a black briefcase, given to each cardinal and emblazoned with a golden seal of the special sede vacante period and the year 2013.
The cardinals met again in general congregation Monday afternoon, where they were expected to undertake a spiritual meditation given by the preacher of the papal household, Capuchin Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa.
They are expected to again meet Tuesday morning. Anticipated is whether they will choose the date for the conclave, the secret meeting at which they'll elect the next pontiff.
NCR Comment code: (Comments can be found below)
Before you can post a comment, you must verify your email address at Disqus.com/verify.
Comments from unverified email addresses will be deleted.
We are not able to monitor every comment that comes through. If you see something objectionable, please click the "Report abuse" button. Once a comment has been flagged, an NCR staff member will investigate.
For more detailed guidelines, visit our User Guidelines page.
For help on how to post a comment, visit our reference page.
Commenting is available during business hours, Central time, USA. Commenting is not available in the evenings, over weekends and on holidays. More details are available here. Comments are open on NCR's Facebook page.