By Quinton Amundson, The Catholic Register

[Canadian Catholic News] – After participating in the solemn procession on April 23, 2025, that moved the body of Pope Francis from his private Vatican City residence to St. Peter’s Basilica, Cardinal Thomas Collins, Archbishop emeritus of Toronto, began walking across St. Peter Square towards his luncheon destination.

The 78-year-old prelate’s flaming red scarlet robes quickly drew a crowd.

“Suddenly I was surrounded by a huge number of people with cameras and microphones,” said Collins in an interview from Rome with The Catholic Register. ‘“What do you think of this and that everything?’ And so, I just kept walking forward, smiling and trying to be pleasant. It was not the occasion to say anything.”

Soon after, he was approached by two Toronto Catholics. He chatted with them briefly, bestowed a blessing and then “continued relentlessly to lunch.”

Collins, the spiritual shepherd of the Toronto archdiocese from 2007 to 2023 and one of the 115 College of Cardinals electors who participated in the 2013 conclave that elevated Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio to the papacy, is again ready to quiet the noise of the outside world to discern God’s will for His Church. He will be among the 135 cardinals eligible to elect the next pope who will enter the Sistine Chapel to begin the conclave May 7, 2025, the Vatican announced.

Collins said he won’t be reading articles touting the supposed top five or 10 contenders to become the next pope. Neither will he consult the odds on any of the betting websites.

“This is not what the cardinals should do,” said Collins, named to the College of Cardinals by the late Pope Benedict XVI in 2012. “We’re trying to reflect on the needs of the Church and reflect on what God wants us to do.”

Following the death of Pope Francis early on Easter Monday, Collins departed for Rome later that evening (Cardinal Francis Leo departed on April 23) to attend the General Congregation of Cardinals sessions that began on April 22, 2025, at 9 a.m. Cardinals use these meetings to plan the conclave and make other key decisions related to governing the Church while the seat is vacant (“sede vacante” in Latin).

“It’s very fruitful listening to the different cardinals,” said Collins. “You learn a lot.”

On April 28, the Fifth General Congregation of the College of Cardinals was hosted in the Vatican’s Synod Hall. According to the Holy See Press Office, it was during this meeting that the decision was made to start the conclave on May 7, 2025.

On April 26, Collins, Leo and fellow Canadian Cardinals Gérald Cyprien Lacroix and Michael Czerny, respectively the Archbishop of Quebec and the prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, joined their brethren, bishops, heads of states and lay Catholics at Pope Francis’ funeral Mass.

According to the Vatican’s estimates, the service in St. Peter’s Square drew 250,000 people. The Mass was the start of nine days of mourning — the Novemdiales — for Pope Francis that concludes May 4. A different cardinal will lead a Eucharistic celebration in honour of the late pontiff each day.

Vatican Secretary of State and touted top papal contender Cardinal Pietro Parolin guided the April 27 service. Cardinal Kevin Joseph Farrell, the cleric who announced the death of Pope Francis to the world, led the May 1 Mass.

Once the conclave begins, the doors of the Sistine Chapel will be closed and the 135 cardinal electors will be sealed off from the world. Exactly 80 per cent of the electors, 108, were chosen by Francis. Twenty-two of the cardinals were created by Pope Benedict XVI, and the remaining five were elevated by Pope John Paul II.

“I find that it’s a very moving experience, a very spiritual experience, a very prayerful experience,” said Collins of the conclave. “Yet is one where you have people from all over the world expressing their sense of the needs of the Church.”

During a media availability following the Archdiocese of Toronto’s memorial Mass in Francis’ honour on April 22, Leo offered similar sentiments.

“This is a spiritual thing,” said Leo, who will be involved in his first conclave. “We do it in prayer. You do it in discernment — opening up to God and having the Lord inspire us for this great ministry of service in the Church to be pope.”

It is an experience that the public wants to grasp. The day Pope Francis departed the world, online viewership figures for the 2024 film Conclave soared 283 per cent.

Collins has not seen the film, but he has heard how the motion picture, awarded Best Adapted Screenplay at the Oscars in March, contains significant factual inaccuracies.

“I heard the premise which is that the pope has died in the movie, and he has secretly named a person to be a cardinal in pectore, which is ‘in the breast’ or ‘in the heart,’ you might say more accurately,” said Collins. “And joins the conclave, and he ends up getting elected pope — and he’s just in pectore. Well, this is not what the thing means. If it cannot get that right, I wouldn’t trust the rest of the movie.”

The official rule is that a cardinal created in pectore cannot participate in a conclave unless the pope makes the cardinal’s name public before his death.

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