AS CARDINALS prayed together for John Paul II’s soul at a mass in St Peter’s Basilica yesterday evening, discreet but vigorous campaigning had already begun on behalf of rivals for the succession, highlighting divisions over the future of the Catholic church.

The mass was the second of nine to be held during a mourning period that lasts until the start next Monday of a conclave to choose the next pope.

After the service, several cardinals went to the crypt of St Peter’s and paused at the marble slab beneath which the body of John Paul now lies in coffins of cypress, zinc and walnut.

Even before his burial, however, lobbying was underway among the 115 cardinals who will cast their ballots in the Sistine Chapel, under the forbidding eye of Jesus in Michelangelo’s Last Judgment. Two of the 117 eligible cardinals, Jaime Sin of the Philippines and Norberto Rivera Carrera of Mexico, are too ill to attend.

Conservatives who claim to be most faithful to John Paul’s legacy were the first to make their mark. The Spanish cardinal Julian Herranz, a member of the secretive and powerful Opus Dei movement, invited several of his peers for meetings at a villa owned by the group in the Roman suburb of Grottarossa.

Candidates favoured by the movement include Angelo Scola, the Patriarch of Venice, and Tarcisio Bertone, the Archbishop of Genoa, who recently denounced Dan Brown’s bestselling novel The Da Vinci Code, with its unflattering portrayal of Opus Dei.

A leading light of the rival reformists, the Belgian cardinal Godfried Danneels, appealed for a successor who would give cardinals and bishops a greater say in running the Church. Danneels favours a bigger role for women but has stopped short of calling for women priests.

“The point isn’t that everything has to change but that everything has to adapt,” he said.

Regional blocs are already beginning to form. The 21 Latin American cardinals were reported to have sealed a pact to swing their votes behind any of them who emerges as a leading contender.

The strongly tipped Brazilian, Cardinal Claudio Hummes, has adopted a low profile. “His Eminence will spend his mornings at the Vatican, and in the afternoons he will pray,” was all an aide would say.

The cardinals will meet in a conference hall near St Peter’s each morning this week to oversee the day-to-day running of the church and discuss its future agenda. But they will also hold discreet consultations across the Eternal City in priests’ colleges, cardinals’ residences and religious institutions.

“People think we spend a week whispering to each other in dark corridors. There is some of that, but the talks usually take place in groups,” said Cardinal Francis George of Chicago.

The conservative German cardinal Joseph Ratzinger — who as dean of the college of cardinals chairs these morning conferences and is regarded as a potential “popemaker” — has sought to set limits on the campaigning. “Do not hold clandestine meetings,” he told them.Yesterday the Vatican announced that the cardinals had “unanimously” decided to avoid contact with the media until after the conclave.

John Paul has looked after the creature comforts of those selecting the next pope during a process intended to be the world’s most secretive election.The cardinals’ home for the duration will be the St Martha’s House in the shadow of St Peter’s, which is rated in the Vatican as similar to a three-star hotel.

Built in 1996 at a cost of $20m, it boasts 105 suites and 26 single rooms, a sunlit reception area with marble floors, antique furniture and a small lift. “The cardinals will be fed fresh produce — meat, vegetables, fruit and dairy products,” said a well-informed nun. Red and white wine will be available, as will cigars and brandies for evening relaxation.

The “house rules” would not go down well in an ordinary hotel, however. There is no television, radio or newspapers, although books are allowed. Cardinal Cormac Murphy- O’Connor, the Archbishop of Westminster, plans to bring “certainly not Dan Brown, but a Bronte; Jane Austen, perhaps”.

One cardinal admitted to feeling “weak-kneed” at the thought of the conclave. Another said: “We have to fill some very big shoes.” o The Vatican’s decision to let Cardinal Bernard Law, the former Archbishop of Boston, lead a requiem mass tomorrow has prompted outrage in America, where he has been criticised over his handling of a paedophile priest scandal.

Law was chosen because his church is one of the four main basilicas in Rome.

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