Catholic cardinals from around the world were summoned on Friday to meetings that will set a date for a conclave to elect a new pope, the day after Benedict XVI's historic resignation.
The dean of the College of Cardinals, Angelo Sodano, sent out formal invitations to the "pre-conclave general congregations" starting Monday morning.
Only once all the cardinals have arrived in Vatican City from the four corners of the world -- from Argentina to Vietnam -- will they set a date for the secret conclave to elect the next leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics, the invitation states.
Only those under 80 are eligible to vote, and 115 are expected to kick off the conclave to be held in the hallowed Sistine Chapel with its Michelangelo frescoes in the first half of March.
Among Benedict's last actions as pope was to authorise the cardinals to move the date forward from the traditional 15 to 20 days following his departure, since they are not mourning a dead pope.
Also today, marking the start of the "Sede Vacante" or Vacant See, the Vatican post office issued a special set of stamps for use until the next pope is elected.
Benedict's eight-year papacy came to an end yesterday with visually potent symbolism when the great wooden doors of the Castel Gandolfo papal residence near Rome -- where he will spend the first two months of his retirement -- swung shut.
The cardinals' preliminary meetings may help narrow down the field of "papabili" -- potential popes -- ahead of the conclave.
Already the profile of the ideal next pontiff is coming into focus: that of a charismatic but tenacious man with good communication skills, capable of re-uniting a fractious Church, stamping down on scandals and re-igniting faith among the young.
But no single cardinal seems to fit the description, and analysts say the fault lines among the cardinals divide conservatives and moderates, Vatican insiders and the dioceses, traditionalists and reformers.
