Cardinals spent the night in a Vatican hotel and returned to the frescoed Sistine Chapel today to continue their votes, with two rounds set for the morning and two for the afternoon.
Thousands of faithful Catholics who massed at St. Peter’s Square yesterday for an early election of a new Pope were disappointed as thick black smoke billowed into the night sky from the Sistine Chapel’s chimney Tuesday, signaling an inconclusive first vote in the Conclave to elect the new Pope at a time of strife and scandal for the Roman Catholic Church.
Reuters reported that the faithful had huddled at the square to watch the smoke pour out of the narrow flue in the rain-laden gloom following a day rich in ritual and pageantry. After praying for divine guidance, the red-hatted cardinals took a solemn vow, in Latin, never to divulge any details of their deliberations. They then secluded themselves behind the chapel’s heavy wooden doors.
No Conclave in the modern era has chosen a pope on its first day, and some cardinals speculated this week that it might take four or five days to pick the man to replace Pope Benedict, who unexpectedly abdicated last month.
The so-called “Princes of the Church” spent the night in a Vatican hotel before returning to the frescoed Sistine Chapel today to continue their votes, with two rounds set for the morning and two for the afternoon. Until they chose a new pontiff, their only communication with the outside world will be the smoke from the Chapel chimney – black when voting sessions end with no result and white when a pontiff is elected.
Whoever becomes the 266th pontiff in the Church’s 2,000-year history will face a daunting array of problems, including sex abuse scandals, infighting within the Vatican bureaucracy and the spread of secularism in its European heartland and beyond.
No clear-cut front runner has emerged, with some prelates pushing for a strong manager to control the much criticized central administration, known as the Curia, while others want a powerful pastor to promote their faith across the globe.
All the prelates in the Sistine Chapel were appointed by either Benedict XVI or John Paul II, and the next pontiff will almost certainly pursue their fierce defense of traditional moral teachings. But Benedict and John Paul were criticized for failing to reform the Curia, and some churchmen believe the next pope must be a good chief executive or at least put a robust management team in place under him.
