Thousands of faithful and curious await white smoke signalling 133 cardinal electors have chosen new pontiff.
Black smoke has appeared from a chimney atop the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican for a second day, signalling that cardinals meeting in a secret conclave did not elect a new pope during their two morning ballots.
Thousands of the faithful and curious were awaiting the smoke in Saint Peter’s Square on Thursday, the second day of secret voting by the 133 cardinal electors.
The cardinals held an initial inconclusive vote on Wednesday evening.
They now hold two votes in the morning and two in the afternoon daily until someone wins the necessary two-thirds majority to become the next pontiff.
The black smoke poured out at 11:50am (09:50 GMT) after the second and third ballots to elect a pope to lead the 1.4 billion-member Catholic Church.
With no one securing the necessary two-thirds majority, or 89 votes, the cardinals will return to the Vatican residences where they are being sequestered. They will have lunch and then return to the Sistine Chapel for the afternoon voting session. Two more votes are possible on Thursday.
Cardinals from about 70 countries were called back to Rome following Pope Francis’s death on April 21 after 12 years as head of the Catholic Church.
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As they were shut off from the outside world on Wednesday, their mobile phones were surrendered, and airwaves around the Vatican were jammed to prevent communications until a new pope is elected.
On Wednesday, the billowing black smoke poured out of the chapel chimney just after 9pm (19:00 GMT), about four and a half hours after the cardinals filed into the chapel. That prompted speculation about what took so long for the electors to cast and count their ballots.
“They probably need more time,” said Costanza Ranaldi, a 63-year-old who travelled from Pescara in Italy’s Abruzzo region to the Vatican.
Some of the voting cardinals had said they expected a short conclave to replace Pope Francis. But it will likely take a few rounds of voting for one man to secure the votes necessary to become the 267th pope.
For much of the past century, the conclave has needed between three and 14 ballots to find a pope.
John Paul I – the pope who reigned for 33 days in 1978 – was elected on the fourth ballot. His successor, John Paul II, needed eight. Francis was elected on the fifth in 2013.