I explain to CNN that Church law bars lobbying conclave cardinals

Today on the CNN website, Vatican Correspondent Christopher Lamb's article on an effort by outside organizations to influence cardinals voting in the papal conclave includes a quote from me on what canon law has to say about the matter. In addition to the quote Lamb used in the piece, I told him that Pope John Paul II's apostolic constitution governing conclaves, Universi Dominici Gregis, makes it quite clear that anyone who tries to exercise such influence is automatically excommunicated. To borrow a phrase used by the Canadian Prime Minister to the US President today, the Church is not for sale.