Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline of France cooed at babies on Sunday at a church in the Monti neighborhood of Rome. Cardinal Peter Erdo of Hungary asked for prayers for fellow cardinals at a church near the Colosseum. Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo of Congo joined priests from across the globe behind the altar of a church in western Rome.
The three cardinals — considered contenders, though not favorites, to become the next pope — were among those celebrating Mass across Rome on Sunday, making among their final public appearances before the conclave to elect a new pope begins on Wednesday.
Campaign rallies they were not. But in the homilies that the cardinals delivered, and in their interactions with the faithful, they offered hints at the messages they might be giving to other cardinals, and to what kind of pope they might want, or want to be.
All cardinals are assigned what is known as a titular church in Rome; when they are in town, they can choose to celebrate Mass there. Some, like Cardinal Aveline and Cardinal Luis Tagle of the Philippines, a leading papal contender, had already done so last week. Cardinal Tagle drew hundreds of Filipino faithful to his titular church in the gritty Centocelle suburb on Thursday. A smattering of lesser-known cardinals also fanned out across the city on Sunday, giving eager Vatican watchers a chance to snap photos of Their Eminences all over town.
But the two Italian favorites, Cardinals Pietro Parolin and Pierbattista Pizzaballa, did not take to the pulpit on Sunday, acting like front-runners in a political campaign who chose to remain silent rather than, perhaps, make a mistake and lose electoral ground.
A few curious Catholics — and news reporters scrutinizing cardinals’ every move — showed up to Cardinal Pizzaballa’s titular church anyway, hoping to catch a glimpse of a potential new pontiff.
“I’ll understand if you desire to go,” the priest at the church of Sant’Onofrio al Gianicolo, on a hill overlooking Rome, told about a dozen parishioners. “Cardinal Pizzaballa will not be here today or tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.”
The parishioners stayed. The half-dozen reporters milling around took off, contenting themselves with chatting with Francesco Ziaco, a 63-year-old banker who had come to see Cardinal Pizzaballa — and who happened to also look a lot like him.
(A reporter from RAI, the Italian broadcaster, asked Mr. Ziaco if he was the cardinal, going clandestine in civilian clothes. Though he was not, he acknowledged, “The first time I saw his picture, I thought, ‘This guy looks like me.’”)
The cardinals who did celebrate Mass were met with enthusiastic support.
A standing-room-only crowd filled the Basilica di Santa Francesca Romana, also known as Santa Maria Nova, waiting for Cardinal Erdo, the archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest, to arrive. Several rows of chairs painted in gold near the front of the church were reserved for dignitaries, including the Hungarian ambassadors to the Holy See and to Italy.
In his homily, the cardinal, a favorite of conservative Catholics, urged the faithful to pray for a new pope “who will have to deepen the church’s mission in a dramatic phase of humanity’s history.”
“The church of today must confront first of all the question of its own ambition,” he said, calling for traditions to be protected and the church to focus on evangelization.
Cardinal Erdo, 72, did not mingle with parishioners. He waved off reporters who asked questions but did lower his car window on the way out to greet a toddler.
The tone of Cardinal Aveline’s Mass on Sunday felt lighter. He opened the service at Santa Maria ai Monti by thanking the Virgin of the Mount for having performed a “little miracle.” Later in the service, the parish priest, the Rev. Francesco Pesce, explained that the cardinal’s bag had been stolen at Mass at the church last week. Three days later, it was found.
Father Pesce joked that he would become pope and make Cardinal Aveline his secretary of state. There were laughs all around. The cardinal thanked parishioners for making him feel at home.
“Do not be afraid of the truth, it will set us free,” Cardinal Aveline, 66, the archbishop of Marseille, said during his homily. “Do not be afraid of those who are different from us, because each man and each woman is a brother and sister for whom Christ has risen.”
Cardinal Aveline individually named the teenagers who had been confirmed, one of the sacraments in the Roman Catholic Church, a week earlier. He stopped by the front pews to shake hands with elementary school children whom he later joined in the sacristy for a chat. He spoke with parishioners and patted babies. He did not speak with reporters.
At the San Gabriele Arcangelo all’Acqua Traversa, Cardinal Ambongo, the archbishop of Kinshasa, made a point to stress the universality of the church in a homily delivered from an altar with priests from the Philippines, India, Madagascar and Italy.
Cardinal Ambongo, 65, a favorite of Francis, asked the faithful to pray for the cardinals entering in the conclave so that they would be illuminated with the Holy Spirit “to elect for the universal church a pope” who is ready to face the challenges of the modern world.
After the Mass, the cardinal met with reporters, staying on message with the sort of discipline that would make many political operatives jealous.
“I asked for prayers — not for prayers for a certain cardinal, for a cardinal from a certain part of the world,” he said. “We pray for a pastor that God wants for his universal church.”
Cardinal Ambongo dodged questions about gay, lesbian and transgender Catholics, of whom he has been less than inclusive, or past comments that women could not become pope, saying, “It’s not the time to talk about these things.”
Then he said hello to parishioners, kissed a baby and went to lunch, hoping, he said, that the papal election would be a short one. “We hope that it will not take a long, long time,” he said.
Patricia Mazzei is the lead reporter for The Times in Miami, covering Florida and Puerto Rico.
Jason Horowitz is the Rome bureau chief for The Times, covering Italy, the Vatican, Greece and other parts of Southern Europe.
Elisabetta Povoledo is a Times reporter based in Rome, covering Italy, the Vatican and the culture of the region. She has been a journalist for 35 years.
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