Inside the sunlit lobby with its polished marble floors and reception desk blanketed with pages of guest lists, the Santa Marta Residence looks like any other lavish hotel in the heart of Rome.
But a bronze bust of Pope John Paul II greeting visitors who enter through the hotel's sliding glass doors indicates that this is no ordinary inn.
The 117 cardinals arriving from all around the world to elect the pope's successor need a place to stay, so he had a US$20 million hotel built for them behind the Vatican's guarded gates. From the Santa Marta the cardinals have only a short stroll or ride behind St. Peter's Basilica to the Sistine Chapel, where the voting will take place.
PHOTO: EPA
On Monday morning the pale brick five-story building seemed poised to receive its special guests. The antique tables with their gold-leaf legs were dusted and polished. A small elevator stood ready to serve the more elderly and infirm cardinals. A black placard indicated the dining room in three languages. The Vatican staff members who usually live there are moving out for the duration.
Yet for all its opulent touches and doting service -- chefs, doctors and priests to hear confessions are all on call -- the really revolutionary changes are tucked in the hotel's nearly 110 suites and score of single rooms.
"Miracle at the Conclave: The Cardinal Will Have a Shower," said a headline in the Italian magazine L'espresso last year, a reference to the shabby accommodations the last time a pope was selected.
The private bathrooms will surely be appreciated, but some people who follow the Vatican have raised the question of whether all of the hotel's conveniences might cause the cardinals to delay finishing the job of choosing a pope and checking out.
Under the rules, if two-thirds of the cardinals fail to agree on a single candidate by the end of the second week of the conclave, a simple majority will suffice. That may tempt some cardinals to stall until their preferred candidate gains enough support to win more than half of the vote and ascend the throne of Peter.
But others say that after years of having a pope in failing health at the helm of the Roman Catholic Church, the cardinals will want to move quickly so that his successor can tackle the raft of pressing issues facing the church.
In the past they needed plenty of prodding.
In 1271, after the papal throne was vacant for three years, anxious Catholics locked up the indecisive cardinals in a crumbling building and put them on a strict diet of bread and water until they made a decision. For an extra dose of motivation, the roof was removed. After enduring rain and harsh sunshine, the cardinals finally elected Pope Gregory X.
Conditions had improved by 1978, the year of the last conclave, but compared with the lifestyle that most cardinals are used to, the shelter was very modest. Beds were on loan from a local missionary college; the lamps were too weak to read by. The extent of the luxuries were a washbasin and some soap, some notepaper and a desk to write on.
Cardinal Giuseppe Siri, the archbishop of Genoa at the time, found much to be desired during his stay in Rome. He referred to his quarters during the brutal Rome summer of August 1978 as an "airless tomb."
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