Eighty thousand adolescents thought they were traveling to Rome for the much-anticipated canonization of Carlo Acutis. Instead, many were in the Eternal City for the Holy Father’s funeral.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state since early in the pontificate of Pope Francis, has long been near the top of pundits’ lists of potential successors to the Argentine pope.

Good-natured, affable and dedicated to dialogue, French Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline of Marseille coordinates a churchwide network in the Mediterranean region, a mission he received from Pope Francis.

All but four of the 135 cardinals who are eligible to enter the conclave May 7 to vote for a new pope had arrived in Rome by May 2, according to the Vatican press office.

With the conclave just a few days away, the pastor of a Maryland parish told OSV News he has “an enormous degree of confidence” in the papal selection process, having seen it from the inside in 2005 when Pope Benedict XVI was chosen.