Thick black smoke yesterday billowed from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel in a sign that cardinals again failed to elect a new head of the Catholic Church, but they were scheduled to hold two more rounds of voting after press time last night.
Among the thousands of Catholics and curious tourists massed in St Peter’s Square, there was applause, but also sighs at the result, which came after the second and third ballots.
The 133 cardinals voting for a successor to Pope Francis as head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics were shut in for the secretive conclave on Wednesday evening.
Photo: AFP
Sequestered away from the world, they communicate their progress by burning their ballot papers and sending up smoke through the chimney of the frescoed 15th-century chapel.
Black smoke means no one has secured the minimum two-thirds majority — 89 votes — and white smoke signals the election of the 267th pope.
The first black smoke on Wednesday evening arrived three hours and 15 minutes after the cardinals closed their doors, greeted with some disappointment by the assembled crowds.
Photo: Reuters
Many people returned yesterday, where the red-robed prelates held two more ballots in the morning. They were scheduled to hold another two in the afternoon, after press time last night, and then four more today, unless a pope is elected sooner.
“I don’t want it rushed — whatever they need to do to make the right decision,” said Barbara Mason, 50, who traveled from Canada for the conclave.
She was hoping for a pope who would continue in Francis’ progressive footsteps, especially as a champion of the environment and migrants, “going forward, not going backward.”
Francis, a charismatic Argentine reformer who sought to open up the Church during his 12 years as pope, died on April 21 aged 88.
Paolo Cabrera, 40, from the Philippines, arrived early at the Vatican with his wife, Cynthia Cabrera, to secure a spot as close as possible to St Peter’s Basilica, where the new pontiff would be presented to the world from the balcony after the vote.
“It is very, very exciting to be here,” he said.
As Filipinos, they said they were rooting for their compatriot Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, one of the favorites — but said that they would be happy with “anybody appointed by God.”
Seated at tables and chairs laid out beneath Michelangelo’s frescoes in the Sistine Chapel, each cardinal elector must write down their choice for pope on a ballot paper and take it to the altar, where it is put in a silver urn.
After the ballots have been counted, they are burned in a cast iron stove dating back to 1939. Chemicals are added to a second, newer stove, connected to the same flue, which color the smoke.
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