Cardinals gather to elect new pope

(UPDATE) VATICAN CITY — Cardinals from across the world will be shut into the Sistine Chapel on Wednesday for a secretive conclave to elect the next head of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics.

Some 133 cardinal electors — ages under 80 — have gathered at the Vatican from five continents to pick a successor to Pope Francis, who died last month after a 12-yearlong papacy.

With experts singling out liberal and conservative front-runners from Europe, the United States, Asia and Africa, the race to lead the 2,000-year-old institution appears wide open.

In a time of geopolitical uncertainty, the new pope faces diplomatic balancing acts, as well as Church infighting, the continued fall-out from the clerical child abuse scandal and increasingly empty pews in the West.

The "Princes of the Church" will hold a pre-conclave Mass in St. Peter's Basilica at 10 a.m., presided over by the dean of the College of Cardinals, Giovanni Battista Re.

It will be the last rite to be celebrated publicly before the Church's 267th pope is presented to the world from a balcony of St. Peter's Basilica, several hours or perhaps days later.

"If we can witness the white smoke that'd be something... that's definitely once in a lifetime," US tourist Luke Vanderburgh said on Tuesday.

Both Francis and his predecessor Benedict XVI were elected within two days, but the longest papal election in Church history lasted 1,006 days, from 1268 to 1271.

With clerics from around 70 countries, this conclave is the largest ever, and the next pontiff will have to secure at least 89 votes — a two-thirds majority. AFP