ROME — In this country, where they love to talk, there are many views on how long the cardinals will take to choose the next pope. 

The leaders of the Catholic Church don't have to act fast. When your history stretches back 2,000 years and beyond, time is relative. In 1268, the church leadership was so divided it took three years to choose a new pope. Three weeks, even three months, would not be long by comparison.

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Three days is a good bet. Even Pope John Paul II, considered an outsider, was selected on the third day. But if the conclave is bitterly divided, cardinals could keep going… and going.

In Roman times the Senate of the Republic would begin at dawn. Senators were adept at delaying a vote, drawing out proceedings.

Fast forward from Roman times and Italy had inherited a culture with a slow pace and a love of long lunches and weekends away from work.

Yet this is also the country that invented the espresso, where coffee is often drunk standing up. Italians created one of the world's greatest fast foods: pizza. And then there's Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati — Italian cars go at one speed: fast. 

Perhaps Italy’s need for speed is partly a reaction to the slow lane that Italy so often appears to occupy. Traffic lights seem to take forever to change; it is little wonder many Italian drivers have one hand permanently on their vehicle's horn.

Italy’s culture has shaped not only the conclave process but the entire machinery of the Vatican — a fact that some say explains many of the church’s current predicaments.

“The way in which the dysfunction of 21st century Italy has re-established itself within the curia in recent years is one of the most important issues for the church,” NBC News Vatican expert George Weigel said.

Twenty-eight of the 115 cardinals taking part in the conclave are from Italy — more than two-and-a-half times the number from the next-largest represented nation, the United States.

For almost 200 years, no papal selection has lasted longer than five days, and it is possible that all the talking prior to the conclave has helped narrow down the field. The voting itself is a slow process — the ballots are counted three times — but the results are announced as they come in, so it will quickly be clear to the cardinals if there is an emerging consensus.

Then the new pope will walk out on to the balcony St. Peter's Basilica. And the conversation will move on to whether the pace of change in the Roman Catholic Church will speed up or slow down.

NBC News' Alastair Jamieson contributed to this report.

Follow NBC News' Keir Simmons on Twitter.

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As the papal conclave continued in Rome, wrapped in mystery and secrecy, there was no indication that the 115 cardinals will be deciding between just a couple of front-runners in choosing a successor to Pope Benedict XVI.

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Milan's Cardinal Angelo Scola and Brazil's Cardinal Odilo Scherer are names that keep cropping up on the lists of papabili, but NBC News Vatican analyst George Weigel says no fewer than 20 men could get votes when balloting starts Tuesday in the Sistine Chapel.

They come from the traditional bastions of Italy, from growth areas like sub-Saharan Africa, even from the United States. Only time — and a puff of white smoke — will reveal which one will emerge as leader of the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics.

Here, in alphabetical order, are the princes of the church who Weigel says could be considered for the top job:

Angelo Bagnasco: The archbishop of Genoa, he also heads the influential conference of Italian bishops. Considered an intellectual heavyweight with a teaching background in metaphysics, he was described as a "pragmatic centrist" by the National Catholic Reporter. Bagnasco, 70, received death threats after hard-line remarks against same-sex marriages in 2007.

Jorge Mario Bergoglio: The archbishop of Buenos Aires is the Argentine-born son of an Italian railway worker. Seen as a compassionate conservative, he reportedly came in second during the 2005 balloting that ultimately elected Benedict XVI. The 76-year-old Jesuit prizes simplicity and humility and would encourage priests to do shoe-leather evangelization, his biographer says.

Giuseppe Betori: The archbishop of Florence, he has been a cardinal for just a year. As secretary-general of the Italian bishops conference, he "built a reputation for himself as a 'bridge builder' in relations between the Vatican and the Italian government," the Italian daily La Stampa reported. Betori, 66, survived a 2011 assassination attempt by an emotionally disturbed person.

Thomas Collins: The archbishop of Toronto was made a cardinal last year. A biblical scholar, he told an Italian newspaper that the biggest challenge facing the church is persecution in an increasingly secular society. Known for his media savvy and rousing sermons, Collins, 66, helped investigate the sex-abuse crisis in Ireland and sits on a Vatican council on education.

Timothy Dolan: The ebullient archbishop of New York is among the best-known cardinals in America and heads the important U.S. bishops conference. Dolan, 63, doesn't run from political controversy or the cameras. The Vatican has been impressed with his dynamic style, conservative chops and missionary zeal, but others may be wary of his effervescence.

Dominik Duka: Talk about a dramatic back story: the archbishop of Prague was forced to work secretly as a priest during 15 years of Communist rule — spending his days as a designer in a factory — and was even jailed for a year during an anti-religion crackdown. Duka, 66, has been active in getting church property returned in a nation where secularism reigns.

Willem Eijk: The archbishop of Utrecht in the Netherlands has two doctorates — one in medicine, one in philosophy — and is considered an expert on bioethics. Eijk, 59, issued a strong apology in 2011 after a commission found the Dutch church had bungled sex-abuse allegations in past decades.

Peter Erdo: The archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest in Hungary "has been on the ecclesiastical fast track his entire career," the National Catholic Reporter says. A canon lawyer, Erdo, 60, heads Europe's Catholic bishops and sits on key Vatican committees. In Budapest, he was known for encouraging lay missionaries to visit every home in a parish to invite the lapsed back to the church.

Sean O'Malley: The archbishop of Boston wears sandals and a hooded Capuchin monk's cassock and says he doesn't expect to trade them in for red shoes and white robes. But O'Malley, 68, has gotten high marks for his cleanup of Boston's sex-abuse mess and heads the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' high-profile pro-life committee.

John Onaiyekan: The archbishop of Abuja in Nigeria was hailed as "the Timothy Dolan of Africa" by the National Catholic Reporter for his big personality. Onaiyekan, 69, also has intellectual and moral heft and successfully pushed for Democratic elections in his homeland. "There's nothing to stop an African from being the pope," he said in Rome last week.

Marc Ouellet: The former archbishop of Quebec and current head of the powerful Congregation for Bishops, this Canadian cardinal is on many conclave short lists. A scholarly theologian who is fluent in six languages, Ouellet, 68, has plenty of experience in Latin America, where he taught, and the Vatican, where he essentially serves as a staff director.

George Pell: The son of pub owners, the archbishop of Sydney is seen as a straight-talking conservative with fans in the Vatican hierarchy. Pell, 71, raised eyebrows when he questioned Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI's decision to resign and suggested he was a better theologian than leader. He gets poor marks from sex-abuse victims' groups.

Albert Malcolm Ranjith: The archbishop of Colombo, Sri Lanka, he has strong Vatican ties and was close to Pope Benedict XVI. But the National Catholic Reporter said that Ranjith, 65, may be too traditional; he's against taking communion in the hand and is a fan of the Latin Mass.

Leonardo Sandri: He was born in Argentina and worked as a parish priest there, but Sandri, 69, spent years trotting the globe as a Vatican diplomat. From 2000 to 2007, he was the Vatican chief of staff and he now serves as prefect for the Congregation for Eastern Churches. He's well-liked but may be seen as a better No. 2 than pope.

Robert Sarah: The former archbishop of Conakry, Guinea, Sarah, 67, now heads Cor Unum, the Vatican's charitable arm. He's described as progressive on social justice issues and very conservative on hot-button topics like gays, contraception and abortion. Despite his Roman credentials, he isn't seen as a mover and shaker.

Christoph Schonborn: The archbishop of Vienna is "the closest thing to a wild card this time around," the National Catholic Reporter said. One of the more moderate candidates, Schonborn, 68, made waves a few years ago when he criticized powerful Cardinal Angelo Sodano for blocking a sex-abuse investigation. He comes from a noble family and speaks seven languages.

Angelo Scola: More than one list of papbili has Scola, 71, at the top. He headed the church in Venice, is now the archbishop of Milan, and has ties to the influential and conservative group Communion and Liberation. He's an expert in bioethics and has worked extensively on Catholic-Muslim relations. But he may lack the charisma to seal the deal.

Odilo Scherer: Born in Brazil to German immigrants, Scherer is archbishop of Sao Paulo but has solid Roman experience from his time as prefect at the Congregation for Bishops. The 63-year-old takes the subway to work and is active on Twitter. He's got moderate-conservative credentials but Catholicism is being challenged by Protestant churches on his home turf.

Luis Tagle: The archbishop of Manila has charisma, a preaching style that brings people to tears, social-media know-how and ties to Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI. But Tagle is only 55 years old and became a cardinal just four months ago so Asia's rising star might have to wait until the next conclave.

Peter Turkson: The former archbishop of Ghana now heads the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. Energetic and easy-going, Turkson, 64, has talked openly about the possibility of becoming pope — too openly, perhaps. He also lost points for clumsily screening a controversial video on Muslims at a Vatican synod. Despite all the attention he gets in the Italian press, Weigel says he's not likely to be a vote-getter.

The Associated Press, Reuters and the National Catholic Reporter contributed to this report

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Roman Catholic cardinals filed into the Vatican on Monday for preliminary meetings to sketch an identikit for the next pope and ponder who among them might be best to lead a church beset by crises.

They arrived by private car, taxi and minibus at the gates of the Vatican for gatherings known as general congregations, closed-door meetings in which they will get to know each other and decide when to start a conclave to choose a man to lead the 1.2 billion member church.

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The Vatican appears to be aiming to have a new pope elected next week and officially installed several days later so he can preside over the Holy Week ceremonies starting with Palm Sunday on March 24 and culminating in Easter the following Sunday. 

Pope Benedict left the church in a state of shock when he announced last month that he would be the first pontiff in 600 years to resign instead of ruling for life. He formally stepped down on Thursday, leaving the papacy vacant. 

High on the agenda at the general congregations will be the daunting challenges that will face the next pontiff, including the sexual abuse crisis that has rocked the church and last year's "Vatileaks" scandal which exposed corruption and rivalries in the Vatican's bureaucracy. 

"We need a man of governance, by that I mean a man who is able with the people he chooses to help him in an intimate way to govern the church," Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the former Archbishop of Westminster in London, told BBC radio. 

"Among the things we will be talking about out here are precisely the need in looking for a new pope for these failings that have happened again to be treated, to be faced strongly." 

The cardinals, numbering about 150, are expected to hold one or two meetings a day. The Vatican seems keen to have only a week of preliminary talks so the 115 "cardinal electors" aged under 80 can enter the Sistine Chapel for the conclave next week. The exact date for its start has not been decided. 

"We have meetings all this week to get to know each other better and consider the situations that we face," said Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois of Paris as he entered. He said he could not say at this stage "who will be the best one to respond to them". 

Cardinals expect to be briefed on a secret report to the pope on the problems highlighted by the Vatileaks scandal, when documents which alleged corruption in the Vatican and infighting over the running of its bank were leaked to the media. 

Shadow of abuse crisis
The crisis involving sexual abuse of children by priests and inappropriate behavior among adult clerics continues to haunt the church and has rarely been out of the headlines.

One elector — Cardinal Keith O'Brien — quit as Edinburgh archbishop last week and pulled out of attending the conclave because of accusations that he behaved inappropriately with priests and seminarians in the past. 

O'Brien initially denied the allegations but issued a statement late on Sunday apologizing because "my sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected of me as a priest, archbishop and cardinal". 

"The church has a particular responsibility to set a moral standard and that's what it tries to do and if sometimes it doesn't, if it fails with certain individuals occasionally it's going to repent and carry on," said Murphy-O'Connor, who will not take part in the conclave as he is aged over 80. 

He said about O'Brien: "I think that's clearly very sad and the person involved has in fact apologized and is now going to leave, as it were, public life as a priest, as a bishop." 

The preliminary meetings also give cardinals the chance to size up potential candidates by watching them closely in the debates and checking discreetly with other cardinals about their qualifications or any skeletons in their closets. 

Cardinals never reveal publicly who they prefer but drop hints in interviews by discussing the identikit for their ideal candidate. The most frequently mentioned quality here is an ability to communicate the Catholic faith convincingly. 

Most cardinals say the new pope could come from outside Europe, but it is not clear if the conclave, which has a slight majority of European cardinals, will break the long-standing tradition of choosing men only from the continent. 

No front-runner stands out but leading candidates include Peter Turkson of Ghana, Leonardo Sandri of Argentina, Austrian Christoph Schoenborn, Brazil's Odilo Scherer, Canadian Marc Ouellet and Angelo Scola, from Italy. 

In an interview with Reuters, Cardinal Sandri, 69, said the next pope should not be chosen according to a geographic area but must be a "saintly man" who was "best qualified". 

Sandri said one of the greatest problems facing the church was "the loss of faith" among many who had "turned their back on God" and need to be brought back into the life of the church. 

He also said the church must open itself up to women in the next pontificate, giving them more decision-making positions in the Vatican and beyond. 

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This story was originally published on Mon Mar 4, 2013 7:27 AM EST

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

LONDON — A Roman Catholic cardinal who resigned as head of the church in Scotland apologized on Sunday for sexual conduct which he said had "fallen below the standards expected of me."

Cardinal Keith O'Brien was Britain's most senior Catholic cleric until he resigned as archbishop on Feb. 25 and said he would not take part in the conclave to elect a new pope. The announcement followed newspaper allegations of inappropriate behavior with priests.

"I wish to take this opportunity to admit that there have been times that my sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected of me as a priest, archbishop and cardinal," he said in a statement posted on the Scottish Catholic media office website on Sunday.

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"To those I have offended, I apologies and ask forgiveness. To the Catholic Church and people of Scotland, I also apologies. I will now spend the rest of my life in retirement. I will play no further part in the public life of the Catholic Church in Scotland."

O'Brien's resignation as archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh last month was announced a day after the Observer newspaper reported that three priests and one former priest from a Scottish diocese had complained over incidents dating back to the 1980s.

The Observer said O'Brien, an outspoken opponent of moves in Britain to legalize gay marriage, had been reported to the Vatican over the unspecified incidents.

The cardinal initially rejected the allegations and said he was seeking legal advice. He ruled himself out of the conclave to avoid focusing media attention on himself.

Last year, O'Brien's comments labeling gay marriage "a grotesque subversion" landed him with a "Bigot of the Year" award from gay rights group Stonewall.

O'Brien's dramatic resignation and self-exclusion from the conclave added to a sense of crisis in the Catholic Church as it deals with the resignation of Pope Benedict against a backdrop of scandals.

O'Brien would have been Britain's only elector at the conclave. He could have attended despite his resignation as archbishop, but chose not to do so.

Benedict's papacy, which ended on Thursday when he flew away from the Vatican by helicopter, was rocked by scandals over the sexual abuse of children by priests.

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Let the papal politicking begin. The College of Cardinals will meet Monday for the first time since the pope's resignation.

Officially, the princes of the church will gather every day to deal with important ecclesiastical business -- setting a start date for the conclave, receiving reports on the state of church affairs around the world.

But Vaticanologists say the most significant discussions will unfold at private apartments, in restaurant back rooms, around the coffee urn, as cardinals meet in small groups to suss out who among them will be the front-runners to become the next pope when they are locked up for voting some time before March 20.

"All the real business takes place at night over anisette and grappa," said Christopher Bellitto, associate professor of history at Kean University.

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Gossip will be traded and names will be Googled. Coalitions will start to form, and lists of first and second choices will start to take form.

"This is the chance, especially for the cardinals out of Rome who don't travel a lot, to get to know the other cardinals better," said the Rev. Thomas Reese, Vatican analyst for the National Catholic Reporter.

Once or twice a day, the cardinals will converge on the Vatican for what are called general congregations, formal meetings that could touch on a wide range of worldly and spiritual issues -- from reforming the Roman bureaucracy to the church's "new evangelization" ethos.

A cardinal can boost or doom his chances during these confabs, which are presided over by the non-voting dean of the college, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, experts say.

Make a dismissive comment about the sexual abuse crisis and a potential candidate could lose the support of the Americans or Irish. One who stumbles on the subject of Islam could be written off by the African cardinals. But a lower-profile cardinal who impresses the group with his eloquence or energy could suddenly have dark-horse status.

After the congregations, the caucusing continues in informal, intimate settings.

"You're not going to do this in McDonald's," Reese said. "This is where the Roman cardinals have the home-court advantage because they have apartments, they probably have a cook, they know a restaurant with a private room where they can have three or four people for dinner."

James Weiss, a theology professor at Boston College, said it's an intricate dance, and this time there will be an overlay of intrigue because of the Vatican document leak scandal that exposed infighting and back-stabbing in the church hierarchy.

An internal report that may address accusations of financial skulduggery, sexual activity and even blackmail is being kept secret until the new pope is chosen.

"What's going to complicate this is they don't know who they can trust any more," Weiss said. "They know something bad was happening at the highest levels of the Vatican, but they don't know who. The level of distrust has not been this great since 1730."

Still, if recent history is any indication, by the time the 115 cardinal-electors actually go into the conclave -- not to emerge until the puff of white smoke is seen -- there will be a handful of front-runners.

It's possible none of those names are the one that will be announced outside St. Peter's. Two early leaders can cancel each other out, forcing their supporters to look for a compromise candidate who can get the two-thirds vote needed to score a pair of red shoes, Weiss said.

He said that unconfirmed reports out of the 1978 conclave -- all the ballots are technically secret, but there's always the possibility of post-election leaks -- had nearly 50 old-guard cardinals coalescing around a conservative.

When they realized their man would never reach the threshold, everyone started moving toward a more electable moderate, and Poland's Karol Wojtyła, championed by an Austrian cardinal, suddenly jumped from 18 to 30-plus votes. He became the new focus of the conclave and, eventually, Pope John Paul II.

While there is alliance-forging during the actual conclave, the opportunities are more limited, experts said.

There are two ballots every morning and night, and the process is tedious and time-consuming, with each cardinal taking an oath before casting a vote and the totals being tallied three times. It all happens in the Sistine Chapel, where silence is mandatory. There is no Internet access, so checking Google to see if a certain cardinal really said a certain something a few years back is impossible.

Vatican watchers say the quicker the conclave happens, the less chance outsider cardinals will have time to research and talk up their colleagues. That likely benefits the cardinals of the Roman Curia who have the most to lose from major upheaval.

Modern conclaves have not lasted more than a few days -- not surprising, since the whole point of them is to make a quick decision.

They were created by Pope Gregory X after a papal election that dragged on for nearly three years, from 1268 to 1271, infuriating the people of the medieval town of Viterbo, where pontiffs lived at the time.

"The people of Viterbo had finally had it and locked the cardinals in a big hall until they elected someone. They still wouldn't elect, so the good people of Viterbo ripped the roof off the hall. They still wouldn't elect, so then they started to give them only bread and water," Bellitto said.

The townspeople finally threatened to start throwing garbage down on the cardinals if they didn't settle their differences, and "lo and behold, they elected Pope Gregory," he said.

Gregory decided that all future elections would be done by conclave with the cardinals cut off from the world until they picked a new leader.

For this election, a repeat of Viterbo isn't in the cards, but some speculate it could be the longest conclave of the last 100 years.

"While there are many possible candidates, there is no front-runner or front-runners, as there was in 2005," said NBC News Vatican expert George Weigel. "There's also a sense that this is a critical moment in the church's history, the cardinals aren't all that familiar with each other, and thus there's a concern to take the time required to get the decision right."

He guessed that if it isn't over in two days, it could take as long as two weeks, but Weiss thinks the cardinals are under pressure to get it done in three days or less for public relations reasons.

"One thing they're all concerned about is maintaining face," he said. "And once it goes beyond three days, the world knows the divisions are running pretty deep."

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With Benedict XVI's abdication taking effect Thursday, the Roman Catholic Church has no pope until the conclave of cardinals settles on a new one. Like many other procedures of the church, the rules for running the institution during this period are ancient and little-known. Here are answers to questions you might have about exactly what happens when the papacy changes hands:

Who's in charge now?
When a monarch leaves, the period before the new king or queen takes over is called an interregnum. In the Roman Catholic Church, it's called a sede vacante (or "empty seat"). The Cardinal Chamberlain, or Camerlengo — currently Vatican Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone — is in charge of running the church, working with three cardinal assistants who are chosen at random and are replaced every three days.

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Why did the pope use a helicopter?
Benedict headed off to a temporary retirement home at Castel Gandolfo, the summer papal retreat, while his permanent home on the Vatican grounds is renovated. To get there, he took a helicopter. Pope Paul VI started the tradition in 1975 purely for practical reasons: The ancient Appian Way — the only way to get there by car — is narrow and a traffic nightmare.

Benedict has a pilot's license, and he's been known to fly the chopper himself on visits to Castel Gandolfo. That didn't happen this time.

Who's going with him?
Benedict's private secretary, Archbishop Georg Gänswein, accompanies him to Castel Gandolfo and will continue as head of his household. At the same time, he'll continue to play an important role in the affairs of the new pope, an arrangement that has raised questions about the possible division of his loyalties. (As in all other matters, of course, the new pope could reassign Gänswein for any reason.)

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Federico Lombardi, the Vatican's spokesman, said the arrangement was likely chosen for the sake of simplicity.

"I believe it was well thought out," he said.

Not staying with Benedict are the famous Swiss Guards. Regular Vatican police now are responsible for his security.

Why isn't Benedict going back to being a cardinal?
There's no modern precedent for what to do with a living ex-pope, so the Vatican has essentially been making new procedures on the fly. 

According to the Vatican's Code of Canon Law, "cardinal" isn't actually a job. It's an honor bestowed upon a bishop or archbishop, which remains his formal job. When Joseph Ratzinger became Pope Benedict XVI, he ceased being a cardinal and assumed the duties of bishop of Rome. The new pope takes on that title. Hence the Vatican's decision to bestow upon Benedict the unprecedented honorific of "pope emeritus."

Does he get to keep the robe?
Yes, but not the red shoes or the ornamental fur fringe. Those are reserved for the active pope. 

Although it's been widely reported that the red "shoes of the fisherman" are made by Prada, they're not, the Vatican says. They're made by the pope's personal cobbler. ("The Pope, in summary, does not wear Prada, but Christ," it said.) Regardless, they're still quite eye-catching: In 2007, Esquire listed Benedict among the world's best-dressed men — mainly for his red shoes. "The point is: Have a signature," it said.

Benedict also relinquished the gold "ring of the fisherman," which is personally made for every pope. In accordance with tradition, it's to be smashed with a silver hammer by Bertoni, the camerlengo, to keep it from being used to forge documents. Benedict's personal seal will be broken for the same reason.

What happens to @Pontifex?
Benedict was the first wired pope — the first to have an iPod, the first to have a cellphone (it's engraved with his coat of arms, the Vatican says) and the first to have a Twitter account.

This was Benedict's final tweet Thursday (because the account was wiped clean in preparation for its next user, there's no link):

Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, said the @Pontifex handle will be turned over to the next pope, who may do with it whatever he pleases.

How do they make the black and white smoke?
Short answer: with difficulty.

After each vote of the papal conclave, the cardinals' ballots are burned. If the vote produces a new pope, the ballots are burned alone, which is supposed to produce a white smoke. If the vote's unsuccessful, a chemical compound is added that's supposed to turn the smoke black.

The official Vatican history says that traditionally, wet straw was used to produce black smoke, but that produced too many false alarms during the election of Pope John XXIII in 1958, so in 1963, the Vatican turned to science. 

(Covering the gray-smoke mixup in 1958, The Associated Press wrote: "So great was the confusion on that Sunday — there were two false alarms — that conclave marshal Sigismondo Chigi told reporters he would have the cardinals briefed 'in the hope that something can be done to remedy the situation Monday.'" The Vatican says it will also ring bells this time to make it clearer when a new pope is chosen.) 

Does the pope have to take a new name?
Not necessarily; it's an ancient tradition, not a law. Until 533, popes used their own names. But that year, a priest named Mercurius of Rome was elected. He was named for the Roman god Mercury, which was  obviously inappropriate for the leader of the Christian church, so he took the name John II. (The Catholic Encyclopedia notes that "the basilica of St. Clement still retains several memorials of 'Johannes surnamed Mercurius.'")

Almost every pope since then has adopted a so-called regnal name.

Lou Dubois and Mary Lou Ahern of NBC News contributed to this report.

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