Cardinals wrap up pre-conclave meetings unsure about who should follow Francis

A Vatican employee annuls the papal seal on the pope’s fisherman’s ring at the Vatican (Vatican Media via AP)

Cardinals have wrapped up their pre-conclave meetings, trying to identify a possible new pope who could follow Pope Francis and make the 2,000-year-old Catholic Church credible and relevant today, especially to young people.

Although they come from 70 different countries, the 133 cardinal electors seem fundamentally united in insisting that the question before them is not so much whether the church gets its first Asian or African pontiff, or a conservative or progressive.