Cardinals yet to choose new pope as black smoke billowed from Sistine Chapel
The Vatican could have a new pope on Thursday.
Black smoke billowed from the Sistine Chapel shortly before noon, meaning the cardinals locked in the conclave have yet to choose one of their own to replace Pope Francis.
White smoke would have signaled a victor.
In the late morning, Rome time, the cameras of thousands of journalists accredited to the Holy See media office for the conclave were trained once again on the copper-sheathed chimney atop the Sistine Chapel, where, inside, 133 cardinal-electors were casting the second vote in the election to replace Pope Francis, who died last month at age 88.
The black smoke came as the media assigned to cover the conclave were hearing rumours that the smoke of Thursday’s first vote would come out white, and that Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the front-runner among a few of the bookmaker sites, would be chosen. He is the Vatican’s secretary of state and was Francis’s second-in-command.
The rumours were of course unfounded, though a winner could still emerge later; three more votes are scheduled. The conclave votes four times a day until one of the 133 elector cardinals emerges on top.
The first vote came Wednesday shortly after 9 p.m., about an hour and a half later than expected. The smoke emerged black, signaling the required two-thirds majority had not been reached. White smoke would have signaled a new pope had been chosen.
There was no official explanation for the delay, though Vatican watchers suggested that the sheer complexity of the event — this conclave is the biggest, most international ever — probably slowed the voting process. In the last two conclaves, in 2005 and 2013, there were only 115 elector cardinals.
The conclave is to vote up to four times today. For more than a century, no conclave has gone beyond four days, with most going two or three days. The previous three conclaves took two days. A vote that goes beyond two days will raise suggestions of infighting among the cardinals, that they lack unity among themselves and their vision of the Church in general.
In an interview with The Globe and Mail Thursday morning, before the results of the first vote of the day were known, Quebec missionary priest Father Yoland Ouellet, National Director of Pontifical Mission Societies Canada, said he hoped that Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of the Philippines would emerge as the winner. Cardinal Tagle, 67, is known as the “Asian Francis,” has a strong social media following and is popular among young Catholics.
Father Ouellet said that Cardinal Tagle shares the vision Francis had for a church that reaches out to all humanity. “We had three non-European popes in a row, a Polish, a German and a Latin American,” he said. “This is the Church. It is universal. The pope is a symbol of pastoral unity and must touch everyone.”
He said that Cardinal Tagle, like Francis, “has a closeness to the poor. Tagle is not into clericalism. He knows how to connect with the people.”
This article was first reported by The Globe and Mail
