Second day of the Conclave for the election of the 267th Pope.
The 133 cardinal electors gathered at 8:00 in the Apostolic Palace to celebrate Mass and praise in the Pauline Chapel. They then retreated to the Sistine Chapel to recite the Midday Ora and then proceed to the first two ballots. The first, which smoked ten minutes before noon, was black, meaning that the second and third ballots of the Conclave were unsuccessful.
The second smoke is scheduled for 7:00 p.m., that is, at the end of the third and fourth votes. Unless the new Pope is elected at the third: in that case the time will be brought forward to around 5:30 p.m.
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For the new Pope, the consent of at least 89 brothers will be needed, a quorum never so high. However, it should be reached between today and tomorrow, as the tradition of the last five conclaves would have it.
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THE DAY:
Second black smoke – Shortly before noon, the second black smoke, meaning that the second and third ballots were also unsuccessful . The cardinals will now go to lunch at Santa Marta to meet again in the early afternoon.
Tagle overtakes Parolin – While waiting for the new conclave votes, international bookmakers are updating their predictions for the next Pope: once again the protagonist is the head-to-head between Luis Antonio Tagle and Pietro Parolin. This time, however, the Philippine cardinal is ahead, offered at 3 by the betting analysts of William Hill against the 3.50 of the Vatican Secretary of State. The Italian "couple" formed by Matteo Zuppi and Pierbattista Pizzaballa is holding out at 6, while the Ghanaian Peter Turkson is up from 5 to 9. The most significant jump in odds is that of Jean-Marc Aveline, "protégé" of Bergoglio: the French new Pontiff is now bet at 18, a sharp drop compared to 33 six days ago. Also appearing on the bookmakers' list is the American Robert Francis Prevost, on the rise but currently still an outsider at 50.
Re: «I trust in this evening» – «I hope that this evening when I return to Rome I will already find the white smoke . I am particularly happy to be here at the beginning of the Conclave so that the Holy Spirit may blow strongly and thus the Pope that today's Church and today's world need may be elected». This was said by the Cardinal Dean Giovanni Battista Re in Pompei, underlining that the new Pope «first of all must try to strengthen faith in God in this world of ours characterized by technological progress, but from a spiritual point of view we have noticed a bit of a 'forgetting God'». Therefore «there is a need for an awakening».
Waiting for the smoke – The cardinal electors, after the mass and prayer, are currently in the Sistine Chapel for the second scrutiny of this conclave. If there is no smoke soon (in this case only if it is white) it will mean that this vote has not reached the quorum of 89 and therefore we will proceed to the third scrutiny, at the end of which, at the end of the morning, around 12, there will in any case be a smoke, be it white or black.
The first black smoke – Yesterday black smoke after the first confrontation between the 133 cardinals who arrived from seventy different countries in the most globalized conclave in history to choose the new leader of the Catholic Church. Europeans, Asians, Africans, Americans, and even from distant Oceania, the cardinals marched in the most solemn of processions, then first collectively and then, one by one, they swore on the Gospel not only to be faithful, for whoever is elected, to the role of Pontiff, but also to absolute secrecy regarding everything that happens within those walls.
The Extra Omnes – At 5:45 PM the Extra Omnes, everyone out, pronounced by the Master of Ceremonies, Monsignor Diego Ravelli. The doors of the Sistine Chapel closed, leaving the entire world waiting and in total ignorance of the events, a completely new sensation in the world of social media and, in the most secret situations, of sources and tip-offs. In St. Peter's Square 45 thousand people awaited the first outcome, scheduled for 7:00 PM: they remained with their noses in the air for another two hours. Compared to the 2013 conclave, which began at the same time this year, the smoke was delayed by an hour and twenty minutes (in 2013 it had arrived at 7:41 PM).
The long meditation – What may have weighed this time was the length of Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa's meditation, 45 minutes, and then the fact that the cardinals, in addition to being eighteen more than at the last conclave, are mostly neophytes and several of them do not speak Italian. So the voting operations took much longer. There are 108 cardinals experiencing their first Conclave, for some of them it is also the first time in the Sistine Chapel.
The favorites – As expected, therefore, only a first test to count and to verify what the entry weights are for the favorites. The rumors continue to highlight Pietro Parolin in pole position, but Francis Prevost, Jean-Marc Aveline are growing; Pierbattista Pizzaballa and Matteo Zuppi also remain firm at the top of the Pope guessing game. And then there are the outsiders who are rarely talked about but who are highly esteemed within the college of cardinals, such as the former head of the Salesians Angel Fernandez Artime.
- UPDATE IN PROGRESS –
(Online Union)