Cardinals Hear Call for ‘Unity of the Church’ at Mass Ahead of Conclave, by Courtney Mares

By Courtney Mares, CNA, May 4, 2025

Courtney Mares is a Rome Correspondent for Catholic News Agency. A graduate of Harvard University, she has reported from news bureaus on three continents and was awarded the Gardner Fellowship for her work with North Korean refugees. She is the author of “Blessed Carlo Acutis: A Saint in Sneakers” (Ignatius, 2023) …

Rome Newsroom, May 7, 2025 / 05:27 am – At the Mass for the election of a new pope, the dean of the College of Cardinals made “a strong call to maintain the unity of the Church” ahead of the conclave on Wednesday, urging the cardinal electors to remember that they will cast their votes in the Sistine Chapel before God “in whose sight each person will one day be judged.”

Cardinals from more than 70 countries processed into St. Peter’s Basilica on May 7 for the solemn Mass “Pro Eligendo Romano Pontifice” — the Mass for the Election of the Roman Pontiff— ahead of the start of the conclave later in the day.

Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, the 91-year-old dean of the College of Cardinals, presided over the liturgy, underlining the need for unity in the Church. “Among the tasks of every successor of Peter is that of fostering communion: communion of all Christians with Christ; communion of the bishops with the pope; communion of the bishops among themselves,” he said. …

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