67 cardinals will vote for the first time in the papal conclave, Father Theodore Mascarenhas tells NDTV

Rome: As the cardinals prepare to elect the next Pope, NDTV speaks with Father Theodore Mascarenhas, Pontificate Council for Culture, in Vatican. Father Mascarenhas, who is an Indian, speaks about the country's representation in the Vatican and reveals some interesting trivia on the conclave.  

NDTV: Tell us what is special about this conclave, a lot of the cardinals in the college have actually never voted before?

Father Mascarenhas: We have 67 cardinals who never voted before, this is their first time. We have 38 who have voted earlier.

NDTV: What does that prove?

Father Mascarenhas: This brings a sort of newness to the conclave. In the last conclave that voted Benedict XVI, there were only two cardinals that had voted earlier because there was a 27-year reign of John Paul II. 115 of them were totally new. This time there is a much bigger group that has voted earlier.

NDTV: Is this a more experienced and mature group of cardinals?

Father Mascarenhas: It is a more experienced college, and in a certain sense more balanced. 67 are first-timers and 38, who we can call veterans, of whom two are Indians.

NDTV: Popes haven't always been elected this way. When did the conclave get this kind of tradition where everybody went in to a closed room and only cardinals elected a Pope?

Father Mascarenhas: Conclave is cumclave in Latin, which means closed with a key, started in the year 1059AD. But before that, till about 729AD, the Popes were elected by People of Rome- People, clergy, everybody. Slowly they saw that there were a lot of factions and people were fighting over the Pope. Some were anti-Pope. From 1059 onwards they started a new system where only the clergy, the bishop voted.

NDTV: The 2005 conclave lasted only for two days. We don't know how long this one will last. Have there been conclaves that have lasted really long?

Father Mascarenhas: There was a conclave in the 13th century that lasted for over two years and there was one that lasted only a day. In the one that lasted over two years, the cardinals were under a lot of pressure from outside- the Roman emperor and others. They kept on bickering among themselves but couldn't vote a Pope, so much so that people had to open the roof of the Sistine chapel and restrict the cardinals to having only water and bread so that they could finish the conclave as fast as possible.  

NDTV: How many Indians do we have in the Vatican?

Father Mascarenhas: We are about 11 officials working in the curia, one is as high as secretary but there are number of nuncios (Pope's ambassadors in different countries) of India. The Indian representation is very less here. Geographical reasons count a lot and the language. Working in the Vatican, you have to know your Italian well and speak one or two other European languages. But slowly the curia is getting more universalised. Before Paul the VI or John the XXIII, almost hundred per cent of curia was Italian, while 89 to 90 per cent was European. Today, I think Italians are fewer and a lot of other people are coming in.