Cardinal Baselios Cleemis the 'only' from Kerala to choose the new Pope

Thiruvananthapuram, April 21 (IANS) Of the four cardinals from the country, who will elect the new Pope, the only 'one' from Kerala, Cardinal Baselios Cleemis is set to leave for the Vatican in the early morning hours of Tuesday from here.

The 64-year-old is the major archbishop of Thiruvanthapuram and the Major Archbishop-Catholicos of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church and had taken part in the voting to elect Pope Francis in 2013.

Cleemis recalled his long association with Pope Francis and when he went to take part in the election process in 2013, he got a room next to Pope Francis.

Pope Francis passed away early on Monday at his headquarters.

However at 11.30 p.m. IST on Monday at a solemn private function, the acting head cardinal will lead a prayer session with the immediate family members of the Pope also participating.

At the session the acting Pope will call out the name of Pope Francis when he was baptised three times.

With no response coming, the Vatican will declare Pope Francis as dead as this is the custom.

On Wednesday morning, the mortal remains of Pope Francis will be brought to the St. Peters Basilica.

In India, at present there are four cardinals.

The election for the new Pope will take place sometime early next month when all the Cardinals aged 80 years and below will be together and will have no contact with the outside world till the white smoke emerges from the meeting place.

Whosoever is elected will have to secure two-third of the votes and if none gets that majority, all the ballots are burned and black smoke comes out from the Sistine Chapel's chimney, signalling to the outside world that voting will continue.

The voting goes on till the time when one candidate gets two-third majority and when that happens the white smoke comes out signalling the new Pope has been elected.

The electoral college consists of four from India.

Apart from Cleemis, the others from India includes Cardinal George Jacob Koovakad, even though a Keralaite, he was recently elevated as Cardinal by Pope Francis in December last year.

Koovakad was posted to the office of Pope Francis and he unlike other Cardinals was only a priest and was based in Vatican.

The other two from India includes 63-year-old Cardinal Anthony Poola, who is the country's first Dalit Cardinal and 72-year-old Cardinal Filipe Neri Ferrao.

Incidentally in Kerala, there are three Catholic rites which include the Syro-Malabar, Latin and the Syro-Malankara Churches.

These three Churches account for more than 50 per cent of the Christians in Kerala, which constitute about 17 per cent of the 3.3- crore state population.

--IANS

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