VATICAN CITY — Cardinals in Rome for the conclave to elect the next pope received a briefing on the Holy See’s finances Thursday amid questions about the Vatican bureaucracy and continued suspicions about its bank.
The heads of the Vatican’s three main financial offices briefed the cardinals as required by rules covering the transition period between papacies, during which cardinals meet daily to discuss the problems of the church and the qualities needed in a new pope.
The cardinals didn’t set a date for the start of the conclave, and the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said he didn’t expect a decision to be taken in Thursday’s afternoon session. The last of the 115 voting-age cardinals, Vietnamese Cardinal Jean-Baptiste Pham Minh Man, was arriving later Thursday and the date can’t be set until he does.
