Archbishop Wilfrid Napier of the Roman Catholic Church in Durban says cardinals will start convening today in Rome to discuss the process of electing a new Pope.

The Head of the Catholic Church and the Sovereign of the Vatican City State, Pope Francis, passed away yesterday morning.

Napier says the process of electing a new Pope will officially get underway after nine days of the mourning period.

He says, “One of the first duties they would have will be to elect three people for different tasks, but the main task is to take responsibility of the leadership of the church which Pope Francis would have been holding up to now. ”

Napier says, “Then the second thing they would do, is to gather all the cardinals and start talking about the process of the election and how that is going to take place.”- Reporting by Sthembile Shabalala.

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