Black smoke again escaped from the Sistine Chapel chimney, Thursday, May 8 around 11:50 am, on the second day of the conclave, a sign that the two voting laps of the cardinals made in the morning did not elect a new pope.
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The cardinals, cut off from the world and locked in the strictest secret, will vote again Thursday afternoon. The smoke will be black again around 7 pm if neither of the two towers led to a majority of two thirds, or white immediately after one of the two votes in the event of an election.
Black smoke had escaped the first time from the Sistine Chapel chimney the day before, around 9 p.m. This first round allowing to gauge the forces present, it was unlikely that the majority of two thirds-that is to say 89 votes-is already reached on Wednesday.
-“Outside all! »
The conclave started on Wednesday afternoon at the Vatican, where the cardinals locked themselves in the Sistine Chapel. More than two weeks after the death of Jorge Bergoglio and after a mass in the Saint-Pierre basilica in the middle of the morning, the prelates dressed in red and white found themselves shortly after 4 p.m. for a common prayer in the Pauline chapel before going in a slow procession in the neighboring chapel.
The hand placed on the Gospel, they then engaged in Latin (“I promise, I force myself and I swear”) to keep the secret on this conclave, under penalty of excommunication. “Outside all! » (“All outside”) Then launched the master of pontifical liturgical celebrations, Diego Ravelli, to bring out the people (officiants, nurses, religious …) not allowed to participate in this meeting where isolation is drastic: no mobile phone is authorized, and telecommunications networks are cut between the Vatican walls.
At 5:45 pm, the doors closed on the “princes of the Church” and the secret of their choice, faced with the majestic fresco of the Last Judgment of Michelangelo. The world has from the eyes riveted on the chimney which will release, at the end of each session, its announcing smoke: black in the absence of choice and white if the pope is elected.
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