Cardinals choosing the next pope have been offered a dossier on candidates – with a subtext

Rome CNN When the cardinals enter the Sistine Chapel on Wednesday at the start of conclave the process of electing a new pope they will be sealed off from the world But that doesn t stop people trying to influence the thinking of the prelates who will choose a successor to the late Pope Francis The electors are allowed to take in written materials and in the days leading up to the conclave have been offered a book on their fellow cardinals one which contains a clear message Titled The College of Cardinals Description it offers profiles on around papal candidates including a breakdown on where they stand on topics such as same-sex blessings ordaining female deacons and the church s teaching on contraception The subtext Choose a pope who will take the church in a different direction to Pope Francis whose progressive reforms angered certain conservatives The College of Cardinals record is freely available online but has also been produced as a large format book One retired cardinal not eligible to take part in conclave reported CNN he had received a hard copy The project has been led by two Catholic journalists Edward Pentin who is from Britain and Diane Montagna from the United States both of whose work appears on traditionalist and conservative Catholic news sites Montagna has been handing the book to cardinals entering and leaving the pre-conclave meetings Reuters published The creators of the assessment say they produced the deposit to help cardinals get to know one another better and that it was compiled by an international and independent squad of Catholic journalists and researchers It comes ahead of a conclave where the cardinals a diverse group drawn from countries multiple of them appointed by Francis over the last decade don t know each other well and have been wearing name badges during their meetings Appealed by CNN whether cardinals will be able to take the overview in with them to the conclave a Vatican spokesman commented What they take in is up to them But two church lawyers have narrated CNN that the assessment is far from impartial and is an attempt to influence the conclave in an anti-Francis direction For example it describes Cardinal Mario Grech the Maltese prelate who has been tasked with overseeing a major overhaul process in the Roman Catholic Church as controversial while it heaps praise on US Cardinal Raymond Burke a prominent critic of Francis The document was compiled in association with Sophia Institute Press a traditionalist-leaning publishing house based in New Hampshire and Cardinalis a magazine based in Versailles France Sophia Institute Press publishes the radically anti-Francis Situation Magazine and in published the book Infiltration which insists that in the th century a group of Modernists and Marxists hatched a plan to subvert the Catholic Church from within Meanwhile Cardinalis regularly features articles on prominent conservative cardinals The College of Cardinals Description website attempts to ward off accusations of bias saying Our approach is fact-based and we strive to be impartial offering as accurate a picture as accomplishable of the sort of man who might one day fill the shoes of the Fisherman a reference to the first pope St Peter Its authors also say there is historical precedent for their initiative pointing to times when diplomats and other trusted scribes would compile more in-depth and reliable biographies of the cardinals and distribute them to interested parties Pentin advised CNN that the record was conceived and created as a institution to the members of the Sacred College to help them get to know one another in view of the next conclave and beyond Naturally we have sought to make the site and accompanying booklet accessible to as countless cardinals as practicable Dawn Eden Goldstein a canon lawyer and Catholic author based in Washington DC is skeptical however Even if they were pushing for a cardinal in the mold of Francis it is still banned according to the law of the church she advised CNN In his rules on the poll of popes John Paul II prohibited on pain of excommunication all viable forms of interference opposition from political officials including any individual or group who might attempt to exercise influence on the ballot of the Pope The idea behind the secrecy of the conclave is to prevent outside influence In the past European monarchs held a power of veto in a papal balloting with the last one exercised in But the conclave has been subject to various kinds of attempts to influence it Clerical sexual abuse survivors have set up a database to vet cardinals records on handling the issue while social media has been full of controversial content from AI-generated videos of cardinals partying in the Sistine Chapel to US President Donald Trump releasing an artificially created image of himself as the pope Well-funded conservative Catholic groups are among the would-be influencers Sophia Institute Press publishes books in partnership with The Eternal Word Setup EWTN the largest religious broadcaster in the world and one which has often given a platform to Francis critics The Napa Institute a conservative Catholic group has been present in Rome in the run-up to the conclave as has the Papal Foundation a group of Catholic philanthropists This room could raise a billion to help the church So long as we have the right pope an anonymous Papal Foundation backer informed the Times of London Chosen members of these groups are also supporters of Trump Tim Busch a Californian lawyer and the co-founder of Napa has described the Trump administration as the largest part Christian he s ever seen While Busch has rejected the claim he is anti-Francis he mentioned that the ultra-conservative Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigan had done us a great system when he distributed a dossier calling on the late pope to resign Vigan was last year excommunicated for schism Kurt Martens a professor of canon law from the Catholic University of America declared church act seeks to protect the cardinals against all kinds of outside influencing and interference He pointed to the Red Hat Description a US group that back in was seeking more than million to compile dossiers on candidates in an attempt to prevent a repeat of the conclave that elected Francis Martens mentioned initiatives such as the cardinals account and the Red Hat Record intend to not just give objective information but colored information and thereby seeks to influence the outcome of the conclave He added Per the rules of St John Paul II that is absolutely forbidden At the same time cardinals are not easily influenced Cardinal Oswald Gracias the retired archbishop of Bombay recounted CNN he is warning fellow cardinals about fake news on social media He disclosed he d received the book on the cardinals but hadn t gone through it It s a well-produced volume but I hope it s accurate he added