Dear Friends, I have held the opinion since the death of Pope Benedict XVI that the cardinals appointed by him had 20 days maximum to elect the next pope otherwise they would lose that ecclesiastical right. This was based on my reading of Paragraph 37 of Universi Dominici Gregis promulgated by Pope John Paul II and also that of Br. Alexis Bugnolo. Until recently (see my recent posts), I did not hear good arguments to the contrary. Therefore, I now retract my opinion and now am more of the mindset that the cardinals appointed by Pope Benedict XVI still have the ecclesiastical right to elect the next pope. I criticized them for causing chaos once the 20 days had passed; I apologize for that. However, they still have a duty to proceed with the election of the next pope.
I look forward to reading more arguments for and against. I hope that canonists will chime in on the matter. Please be free to share arguments or links with me in the comments.