Few things cause Catholics more excitement than a papal conclave.
So when it was reported by the eminently respectable website The Pillar, and then by regular Herald contributor and Vatican veteran Diane Montagna, writing for The Remnant, that the Pope has charged his senior canon lawyer, Cardinal Gianfranco Ghirlanda, to develop draft revisions to the papal election process, it produced some ripples of serious interest among observers.
It was asserted that, according to reports, Cardinal Ghirlanda has been asked to develop possible amendments to Universi dominici gregis, Pope St John Paul II’s 1996 apostolic constitution governing the events surrounding the death of a pope, and the election of his successor.
