Amid pilgrims and a nonviolent demonstration for women's rights in the church, the selection process for the cardinals is locked in.
Black smoke plumes have appeared from the Sistine Chapel's chimney, indicating that the 133 cardinals who were confined within were unable to pick a new pope on the first day of the conclave.
The first round of voting didn't begin until approximately 5:45 p.m. local time, following the solemn march to the Sistine Chapel and the cardinals' pledge of secrecy. Then, while the cardinals were voting, all eyes were on the well-known chimney, which was vigilantly guarded by a seagull.
At 9:05 p.m., after a nervous wait, black smoke eventually emerged, to thunderous cheers from the more than 45,000 people below.
Only when a successor to Pope Francis, who passed away last month at the age of 88, is found will the conclave come to a conclusion. It will resume on Thursday.
Even though it was not anticipated that the pope would be elected on the first day, St. Peter's Square was crowded.
Originally from Tuscany, Cinzia Caporali and her spouse traveled to Rome to see Pope Francis's tomb in the Santa Maria Maggiore basilica in the Esquilino neighborhood.
Caporali remembered being in the capital of Italy when Benedict XVI, Francis's predecessor, was elected in April 2005. One of the quickest papal elections in a century, the conclave that selected Joseph Ratzinger ended in less than 36 hours.
"I heard people yelling, 'Fatto, fatto, fatto!'" in a nearby cafe. [It's finished]. When I got outdoors, I noticed the white smoke," Caporali remarked.
She was now anxiously awaiting the announcement of the next pope. She remarked, "I hope it will be a continuation of Francis." He stood up for the underprivileged, and we must ensure that this continues. The church's ostentatious wealth is out of style, so we don't want to see it.
Giovanni Battista Re, the Italian cardinal who presided over Pope Francis' funeral ceremony, seemed to advocate for the same during his homily at the cardinals' pre-conclave mass in St. Peter's Basilica on Wednesday morning.
Declaring that selecting a new pope was "an act of maximum responsibility," Re urged the electorate to set aside all "personal considerations."
In order for the elected pope to be the person that the church and mankind need at this challenging and complex juncture in history, he stated, "We are here to invoke the help of the Holy Spirit, to implore his light and strength."
Additionally, he exhorted students to follow their hearts since "love is the only force capable of changing the world."
Francis left behind a diverse but divided college of cardinals, which makes it difficult to find a suitable successor. Prior to traveling to Rome for his funeral, many cardinals had never met. Some wish to reverse Francis' reforms and go back in time, while others support the progressive church he championed during his 12-year pontificate.
However, prior to the conclave, there was a perception that no cardinal wanted the election to last longer than two or three days, partly because they did not want to create the appearance of division within the Catholic church.
In the lead-up to the vote, the cardinals held twice-daily pre-conclave sessions where they examined a range of topics, including war, evangelism, the Vatican's finances, clerical sexual abuse, and service to the impoverished and migrants.
The program did not, however, address the position of women in the church, a topic Francis was eager to advance despite his frequent assertions that women could never serve as priests.
In recent days, Catholic women's organizations that have been fighting for women's ordination have come together in Rome.
Europe is represented by the majority of the cardinals choosing the next pope.
The number of voting cardinals by the nation they represent
Cardinals gathering before the start of the conclave in the Sistine Chapel.
Before the conclave started, the air on Gianicolo Hill, which has a view of St. Peter's, was filled with bursts of pink smoke. Advocates from the UK-based organization Catholic Women's Ordination (CWO) organized the nonviolent demonstration that included the smoke.
According to Miriam Duignan, the leader of the CWO activists, "the cardinal-electors—133 men—will use smoke signals to communicate to the world they have elected a new pope." "We communicated with them, also through smoke signals, in the hopes that they would become aware of the injustice they are perpetuating, since they have silenced and subjugated half of the global church's population and refuse to listen to women."
The truth is sacred. Assist in keeping them safe.
In the 204 years that the Guardian has existed, journalism has always been a challenging and costly endeavor. However, in 2025, we are confronted with new challenges that were before virtually unthinkable.
Over the past 20 years, hundreds of newspapers worldwide have shuttered or drastically reduced in size as a result of the tech titans tearing up the news industry's business model. Social media networks and the waves of false information that accompany them fill the void left by their absence.
Journalists are also facing more political pressure. Around the world, authoritarian and antidemocratic regimes seek to control the press by using everything from violence to threats of repression and exclusion. It's critical that we defend democracy and journalism.
0 Comments