Galvanised by reports that Cardinal Ratzinger may already have as many as 50 of the 77 votes needed to become the next Pope, liberal cardinals held talks under the guidance of Cardinal Achille Silvestrini of Italy. They hope to thwart the appointment of Cardinal Ratzinger, the late Pope’s long-serving hardline doctrinal “enforcer”, fearing that he would be a divisive force in the Roman Catholic Church.

Cardinal Silvestrini, who is over 80 and therefore unable to vote, has vigorously promoted the progressive agenda: collegiality, or Church democracy, ecumenism, global poverty, dialogue with Islam and a more open debate on celibacy and the role of women.

The most likely liberal champion remains Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, 78, the former Archbishop of Milan. A Jesuit, he retired to Jerusalem three years ago and has incipient Parkinson’s disease, but commands huge respect.

Cardinal Ratzinger, who turned 78 on Saturday, will chair the conclave as Dean of the College of Cardinals, but his prominent role has been unable to halt a whispering campaign that has highlighted not only Cardinal Ratzinger’s reputation as an inflexible Grand Inquisitor but also his Second World War record as a member — though mandatory — of the Hitler Youth. His supporters retort that he was 18 at the time and came from an anti-Nazi family. He is held to have displayed humanity and humility when presiding over the funeral of John Paul II.

Other leading conservatives are Cardinal Angelo Scola, the Patriarch of Venice, 63, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, 70, the Archbishop of Genoa, and Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos, of Colombia, 75. Liberals include Cláudio Hummes, 70, Archbishop of São Paulo, Brazil, and Cardinal Oscar Rodríguez Maradiaga, of Honduras, 62; both have vowed to tackle globalisation and the gap between rich and poor.

Yesterday Cardinal Maradiaga appeared on Italian television to insist — with a smile — that the cardinals were meeting in “a spirit of fraternity and unity”. “We will be guided by the Holy Spirit,” he said after Sunday Mass. Handwritten notices have sprung up around St Peter’s Square announcing that “the next Pope will be Maradiaga”. He is seen by some as too young and too clever. Compromise candidates include Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi, 71, Cardinal Martini’s successor at Milan, who has shown sympathy for anti-globalisation protests and African victims of Aids, and Cardinal Angelo Sodano, 77, the experienced former Secretary of State. They, too, however, have been victims of whisperers: Cardinal Tettamanzi was too provincial while Cardinal Sodano is said to have been closer than he should have been to the Pinochet regime when Papal Nuncio in Chile from 1977 to 1988.

Reports have circulated that Cardinal Ivan Dias, 69, Archbishop of Bombay and another leading contender, is diabetic, and that Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 68, Archbishop of Buenos Aires, a Jesuit, had a record of complicity in the disappearance of opponents of the former Argentine military regime. Both claims are denied.

Cardinal Cormac Murphy- O’Connor, Archbishop of Westminster, said that he would take some “light reading” into the conclave as well as devotional works. Asked if this meant novels by Dan Brown, author of The Da Vinci Code, he replied: “Good heavens, no. Perhaps Jane Austen.”

Cardinals will hold a public Mass this morning in St Peter’s Basilica. Television will broadcast for the first time their procession at 4.30pm to the Sistine Chapel — but the cameras will not enter the chapel, where all but voting cardinals will be excluded with the cry of “exeunt omnes”. La Stampa said that some cardinals, expecting a lengthy conclave, had packed compact disc players in their bags along with prayer books.

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