Spanish Cardinal Leads Vatican until New Pope Is Elected
Spanish Cardinal Eduardo Martinez Somalo, the Vatican camerlengo, will be the administrative, not spiritual, father of the world´s more than 1 billion Catholics until a new pope is elected within the next few weeks.

Heads of Vatican agencies , essentially a cabinet, and John Paul´s inner circle of aides, automatically lose their power.

That makes Martinez Somalo the cleric of the moment. He bore the responsibility to make sure that the pope was dead. He also took charge of organizing the lying in state of the Pope´s body in the Vatican basilica and the Pope´s funeral and, if tradition held, of putting seals on the Pope´s bedroom and study.

His primary responsibility is to organize the still unscheduled papal conclave of all the cardinals.

According to tradition, the camerlengo has to arrange destruction of the Fisherman´s Ring, the pontiff´s personalized signet ring, and of the lead seal that the pope used for his Apostolic letters. He will convene meetings in which the world´s cardinals will be able to memorialize the pope and become familiar with the rules for election of the new pope.

Despite his new role, the Spanish cardinal is not considered a candidate for pope.