Waiting for the smoke that heralds a new pope
- The San Juan Daily Star
- May 8
- 5 min read
By Motoko Rich and Patricia Mazzei
After the men who will select the next pope were locked inside the Sistine Chapel without cellphones Wednesday, the only thing left to do was wait for them to send a signal to the outside world. By smoke.
The highly secret voting began inside what is possibly one of the world’s most secure vaults in the early evening, with the 133 cardinals tasked with deciding who will succeed Pope Francis writing candidates’ names on voting cards by hand, trying to disguise their handwriting.
Outside in St. Peter’s Square, thousands of the faithful, the curious and the vacationing gathered to await the news of whether the cardinals had managed to elect a papal successor. Word came at 9 p.m., in the form of black smoke billowing from a chimney installed last week on the roof of the chapel.
If the smoke had been white, it would have meant that the cardinals had chosen the first new pope in a dozen years in just one round of voting, a feat not seen for centuries.
But the black smoke, created when the cardinals’ ballots are incinerated in a cast-iron stove, means they’ll have to try again.
“We are cold; we’re hungry; we’re thirsty, but yet we can’t move,” said the Rev. Peter Mangum, 61, a priest at the Church of Jesus the Good Shepherd in Monroe, Louisiana. He and three other priests had been in the square for about seven hours, and it was Magnum’s fourth time waiting for news of a new pope.
He had stood in the same spot for the elections of John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis, and he wasn’t going to budge until he knew Wednesday’s news. “We had to make sure the smoke was black,” he said.
It took two days to elect Francis in 2013 and Pope Benedict XVI in 2005. No conclave in the 20th or 21st centuries has lasted more than five days.
In an era when news travels instantly around the world, the patience-requiring wait for the smoke in St. Peter’s Square is a ritual that dates back to the 19th century.
For some, the anxiety was intense. “I think there’s more nervousness among the people outside than among the cardinals themselves,” said Tania Radesca, who arrived at the square at 1 p.m.
Radesca, who is from Venezuela, had volunteered to help during the Jubilee, a year of pilgrimage that happens every 25 years, and she arrived in Rome just over a month ago. She was in St. Peter’s Square on Easter Sunday and caught a final glimpse of Francis in his popemobile.
He died a day later.
Those who arrived early to score spots at the barricades closest to the front of St. Peter’s Basilica draped flags from their home countries along the barriers and befriended each other as they settled in. Others camped out on yoga mats or picnic blankets.
Many had traveled a long way, specifically for the conclave. Rodrigo Pinto, 43, a retired karate instructor, flew 23 hours from Guatemala, landing Tuesday afternoon and heading straight to St. Peter’s Square on Wednesday so he could wait for the first sign of smoke.
Pinto, who was wearing a rosary, said: “I want to be a part of something I have always seen on TV, in documentaries, on the internet.” After standing in the rain in the morning and under the hot sun in the afternoon, he said, “Three hours ago, it was like hell. Sorry, St. Peter.”
The day of waiting began at 10 a.m. when Giovanni Battista Re, the spry 91-year-old dean of the College of Cardinals, presided over a Mass inside St. Peter’s Basilica and implored the voting cardinals to choose “a pope who knows how best to awaken the consciences of all, and the moral and spiritual energies in today’s society.”
As the cardinals gave each other the sign of peace during the service, Re hugged Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state under Francis and considered a leading candidate to succeed him. A microphone caught Re wishing Parolin best wishes.
Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, another potential candidate who appeared with a fresh haircut, warmly shook his peers’ hands. Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline, the archbishop of Marseille and also considered a papal contender, stopped for a prayer in front of the reliquary containing the remains of Pope John XXIII — a hero to many liberal Catholics for his efforts to modernize the church.
After lunch at the Casa Santa Marta, the lodging house inside the Vatican where the electors will stay throughout the conclave, the cardinals walked to the Sistine Chapel. As they proceeded into the chapel, they chanted the Litany of the Saints, while a choir hauntingly invoked the names of the saints. The cardinals replied with “Ora pro nobis,” or “Pray for us.” Outside in the square, many watching on the large video screens flanking the basilica swayed and echoed the cardinals’ chant.
Inside the Sistine Chapel, name tags for the cardinals had been placed on the long tables where they would vote. Francis named many more cardinals than his two predecessors, some from countries far from the Vatican, and many of the papal electors — and potential popes — do not know one another.
Around 5:45 p.m., Archbishop Diego Giovanni Ravelli, the master of pontifical liturgical celebrations, announced “extra omnes,” a Latin phrase that means “everybody out.” The giant wooden doors were closed, leaving the 133 cardinal electors — those under the age of 80 who can vote in the secret ballot — locked inside.
The cardinals will not be allowed to leave the Vatican until a two-thirds majority agrees on the next pope. Phones, internet, television and any contact from outside the Vatican walls are prohibited, a custom enforced to discourage the process from dragging on.
Some veteran electors believed there would be prolonged voting. “Bring a book,” Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York said he advised other cardinals, in an interview Tuesday.
The conclave began 16 days after Francis’ death April 21.
The significance of the moment was not lost even on those who had little knowledge of Catholicism.
Yuichiro Yamakoshi, 41, a Japanese tourist traveling with his wife, said that after touring the Vatican museums and walking through the doors of the four main basilicas that are usually open only during the Jubilee, he started to understand the power and influence of the faith. Although the couple had come to St. Peter’s Square on Tuesday with a guide, they returned Wednesday morning for a commemorative photo marking the conclave.
As the black smoke dissipated into the sky, all there was to do was wait for another day.
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