VATICAN CITY, May 3, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - The cardinals of the Catholic Church held their ninth in a series of near-daily meetings at the Vatican on Saturday ahead of the election of a new pope.

The closed-door "general congregations" allow them to discuss the challenges the new pontiff will face before they are locked into the Sistine Chapel on Wednesday for the vote.

Walking through crowds of pilgrims and journalists for the morning meeting, the so-called "Princes of the Church" gave little away -- not even speculating how long the conclave would last.

"We do not know, we just wait for the Lord to tell us," said Cardinal William Seng Chye Goh, Archbishop of Singapore, seen as one of the more conservative prelates.

The cardinals were called to Rome from around the world after the death on April 21 of Pope Francis, an energetic reformer from Argentina who led the Catholic Church for 12 years.

On Wednesday, 133 of them will enter the Sistine Chapel and not leave until they have -- after a series of secret ballots -- given a two-thirds majority to Francis' successor.

"We recognise his achievement but no pope is perfect, no one is able to do everything so we will find the best person to succeed St Peter," Goh told reporters.

Cardinal Jean-Paul Vesco, archbishop of Algiers, said he hoped the conclave would choose a pope to follow in Francis' progressive footsteps.

"We must discover the one the Lord has already chosen," he said.

"We could have had much more time praying together, but I am sure that at the right moment we will be ready and we will give the Church the pope that the Lord has wanted."

The papal election is being followed keenly by the world's 1.4 billion Catholics, and at least one non-Catholic leader has taken an unusual interest.

On Friday, US President Donald Trump posted a spoof picture of himself dressed as the pope on his Truth Social platform, after joking that he would like the job.