The black smoke poured out of the Sistine Chapel chimney once again on Thursday at the close of the first of two sessions of votes being held today.
VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Black smoke has emerged from the Sistine Chapel after the morning votes on Thursday, meaning that cardinals in conclave remain undecided about who is to be the new pope.
At around 11.50am local time, onlookers in the square below witnessed the black smoke emerge from the chimney on the roof of the Sistine Chapel. The smoke came to mark the conclusion of the morning session of the conclave, which is comprised of two rounds of votes.
On a full day of conclave, cardinals hold a morning session with two rounds of votes, and an afternoon session which also has two rounds of votes.
If no pope is elected in the first round of either the morning or afternoon session then the cardinals proceed straight to the second session, without releasing the black smoke.
However, if a new pope is elected during any round of votes then white smoke will be released from the temporary chimney of the Sistine Chapel and the world will wait to see a new pope presented from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica.
The cardinals began the conclave yesterday morning, starting with the Mass for the election of a new pope before processing into the Sistine Chapel in the afternoon.
Once inside the famous chapel, they swore their oaths of secrecy regarding the conclave – promising not to reveal details to any non-cardinal electors under pain of excommunication.
Previous conclaves back to that which elected Pope Paul VI have taken just two days. Precedent of the recent decades thus suggests that a new pope could be elected swiftly, perhaps even on Thursday or Friday.
However, many cardinals have observed that they do not know each other, and this key aspect might lead to a slightly longer conclave than normal.
To keep track of LifeSiteNews’ full conclave coverage from Rome, find the archive here.
