4月16日，梵蒂冈为病逝的教皇约翰保罗二世举行了最后一场弥撒，结束九天的哀悼期。从18日起，来自52个国家的115名红衣主教将分两轮闭门投票，选举新教皇，得票逾三分之二的主教将获选为第265任教皇。外电报道如下：Bringing their suitcases and personal views on the future of the church, the cardinals who will select the next pope settled in their rooms Sunday in the Vatican hotel that will be their home until the world's 1.1 billion Roman Catholics have a new leader.

The conclave starts Monday after the 115 red-robed cardinals join a formal procession into the Sistine Chapel, where efforts to maintain the secrecy of deliberations have included installing jamming devices to foil sophisticated eavesdropping equipment.

But the cardinals' arrival at the $20 million Domus Sanctae Marthae took them into the imposed isolation of the papal election - which has not lasted longer than five days in the past century but remains an open-ended process. The last conclave in 1978 took eight ballots over three days to choose Pope John Paul II.

Cardinal在上文中意为“红衣主教；枢机主教”，红衣主教是天主教会内的高级宗教官员，级别仅低于教皇，由教皇任命为红衣主教团成员。此外，cardinal作形容词表示“主要的、首要的；大红的、鲜红的”，还有“北美红雀，女士（红）斗篷，（烫热的）红葡萄酒”等名词含义。例如：a matter of cardinal significance.（一件很重要的事）；a cardinal rule（基本准则）；cardinal sins（七大罪）；cardinal bird（北美红雀）。

（中国日报网站编）