Hungarian Primate `unable to come'
HOPE OF EARLY FINISH
FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENTS
ROME, Thursday.
IN the Sistine Chapel of the Vatican Palace this morning, the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church will cast their first votes in the election of a new Pope.
The Conclave area was finally sealed off last night by the Camerlengo, Cardinal Masella, assisted by Cardinals Tisserant, Cerejeira and Ottaviani, deans of the three grades of the Sacred College.
Two of the 82 Cardinals are missing. Cardinal Mindszenty, Primate of Hungary, received the usual summons to the Conclave, but this week notified the Vatican of his inability to attend and the reasons for it. It is likely that he had refused to go unless the government would guarantee his return.
Cardinal de la Torre of Ecuador, who is nearly 90, has been forbidden by his doctors to attempt the journey. Two members of the Curia, Cardinals Micara and Chiarlo, are also sick, but will be present in wheel-chairs and with doctors in attendance. All Cardinals are bound to attend unless they are " impeded."
The end of the Novendial, the nine days of mourning for Pope John, was the traditional signal for a certain degree of guarded speculation and exchange of views among the Cardinals then in Rome. They may be expected to have entered the Conclave with a kind of " short list " in their minds.