Cardinals from around the globe will hold a conclave in the Sistine Chapel from next Tuesday to elect a new leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics, after "pope emeritus" Benedict XVI's historic resignation.
Cardinals will first celebrate a "Pro Eligendo Romano Pontifice" mass in St Peter's Basilica after which they will file into the chapel under the famous frescoes of Michelangelo for a centuries-old ritual bound by a vow of secrecy.
A pre-conclave meeting of cardinals today "decided that the conclave will begin on Tuesday, 12 March 2013," the Vatican said in a statement.
On the eve of the event, the 115 "cardinal electors" are expected to move into a special residence within the walls of the Vatican, where they will be cut off from the world.
Each cardinal has to swear not to reveal details of the conclave on pain of excommunication. The cardinals will spend the weekend and Monday in last-minute debates over who is the best candidate.
Vatican watchers have suggested the cardinals are split roughly into two groups, between those who think that Italy's Angelo Scola, the Archbishop of Milan, is the man to lead the Church, and others who would prefer a non-Italian in charge.
Among the other names on the rumour mill are Canadian Marc Ouellet, Ghanaian Peter Turkson, US cardinal Sean O'Malley and Luis Antonio Tagle, the Archbishop of Manila.
"In the past two days things have been getting a bit clearer. There are at least half a dozen possible candidates," French cardinal Andre Vingt-trois, the Archbishop of Paris, told AFP in an interview.
In the run-up to the conclave, the Princes of the Church have seized the rare chance of being able to air their grievances against the Vatican, with no new pope to defer to and no old pope to mourn.
