Aussie cardinal joins gathering ahead of conclave expected to elect new pope

Ahead of an expected conclave to elect a successor to Pope Francis, about 10 cardinals came together for a meeting in Singapore last week.

Pope Francis, who is in hospital, during the weekly general audience at St Peter's Square in The Vatican last November. Picture: AFP

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Ahead of an expected conclave to elect a successor to the gravely ill Pope Francis, about 10 cardinals came together for a meeting in Singapore last week, including Australia’s Cardinal Mykola Bychok.

The group, drawn mainly from around the Asia-Pacific region, including India, The Philippines, Tonga and Malaysia, was hosted by Singapore’s Cardinal William Goh.

A few travelled from further afield including Stockholm, South Africa and the Netherlands.

Bishops and archbishops also attended the conference, which was sponsored by a US think tank. The late Cardinal George Pell was a supporter of similar conferences in the past.

The timing of the meeting, ahead of an upcoming Conclave, is significant because one of the major concerns of members of the College of Cardinals, new and experienced, is that unlike John Paul II, Pope Francis has rarely, if ever, called formal meetings of his cardinals.

In recent years, several senior cardinals have told The Australian the lack of contact is a serious problem in preparing for a vote.

“We don’t know each other,’’ a US cardinal complained.

At 45, Cardinal Bychok will be one of the youngest voting cardinals.

At the Singapore conference, he delivered a powerful speech about the family in his original homeland, Ukraine, which has been ravaged by Russia’s illegal invasion.

Cardinal Bychok told the conference that Ukraine was still very much a “post-Soviet country” as 70 years of evil, communist, atheistic and despotic rule had had a profound effect on Ukraine and its people.

“Despite communist authorities rewarding mothers who had many children, this was not because they were pro family,’’ he said. “They were to produce children to serve the state, work in factories and collective farms, and ultimately defend the motherland as cannon fodder on the killing fields of war. This is a situation that is repeating itself in modern Russia.’’

A large majority of Ukrainians wanted to break from the Russian Soviet world that had oppressed Ukraine for centuries, he said. Ukrainians now looked towards Europe.

Ukrainian families were now bearing the heaviest, most painful blow of Russia’s barbaric war.

“Every Ukrainian family today is a suffering family, experiencing excruciating uncertainty, anxiety, stress and fear,’’ the cardinal said.