Now that Pope Francis’ funeral is over and his remains are buried in a Rome basilica alongside seven other popes, the Roman Catholic Church’s attention shifts to its future.

With the conclave to select the next pope scheduled to start as early as May 6, the College of Cardinals will get down to the business of deciding who among them will succeed Francis.

On Tuesday, the day after Francis died, the cardinals started holding general congregation meetings behind Vatican walls. They discussed scheduling and logistics for the days leading up to the conclave, but also the issues, priorities and personalities they wanted highlighted.

Those meetings will continue in earnest Monday, when most of the voting-age cardinals — those younger than 80 — have arrived in Rome. To expand the geographic scope of the church, Francis named cardinals in countries he said were at “the peripheries” — those that traditionally didn’t have them.

As a result, many within the College of Cardinals do not know one another. The twice-daily meetings, filled with short speeches but also informal conversations, will be an opportunity for those voters to become more familiar with one another, feel one another out and gauge priorities, agendas and charisma.

Over the next week, blocs will take sharper shape; favorites will rise and fall; and questions about the direction of the church — whether to follow, reverse or leap ahead of Francis’ footsteps — will come to the fore.

The beginning of the conclave usually signifies the end of the campaign trail for the papacy, and recent elections have been relatively quick. But if there is no consensus, or if favorite candidates don’t secure the needed two-thirds majority among the voting cardinals, the conclave can become its own electoral season.

But all of this will take place in customary secrecy.