CV NEWS FEED // Cardinal Vinko Puljić, Archbishop Emeritus of Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina), has announced that he will attend the upcoming conclave in the Sistine Chapel and will not make use of the special voting provisions for sick cardinals—measures that could have slowed the process.
As CatholicVote reported, the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera initially revealed that Cardinal Puljić had planned to travel to Rome and stay at the Santa Marta guesthouse during the conclave. Due to an undisclosed health condition, he had intended to vote from his room rather than join his fellow cardinals inside the Sistine Chapel.
However, in a video interview with L’Isola che non c’è, an NGO based in the southern Italian region of Brindisi, Puljić said that he now plans to be present in the chapel itself, with some physical assistance.
“I need help to get in, but I think there will be no problem. With help I can get into the Sistine Chapel,” he said.
His decision puts to rest concerns that remote voting from Santa Marta could have caused significant delays during each of the four daily voting sessions typically held in a conclave.
Cardinal Puljić, who was made a cardinal by Pope Saint John Paul II in 1994, is a respected figure in the Church for his leadership during the Bosnian War and for promoting interfaith dialogue in a region long marked by religious and ethnic conflict. His presence at the conclave will carry both symbolic and practical weight.