After the men who will select the next Dere locked inside the Sistine Chapel without cell phones on Wednesday, the only thing that lasts was to wait for a signal to the outside world. By smoke.
The highly secret vote began within what is possible one of the safest vaults in the world early in the afternoon, with the 133 tasks of the cardinals who decide who will happen to Pope Francis who writes the names of the candidates in the voting cards.
Outside in the Plaza de San Pedro, thousands of faithful, the curious and the holidays gathered to wait for the news that the cardinals had managed to choose a papal successor. Become 9 pm, in the form of black smoke that undula from a fireplace installed last week on the roof of the chapel.
If the smoke had the white leg, it would have meant that the cardinals had chosen the first new Pope in a year in just a voting round, a feat that is not seen for centuries.
But the black smoke, created when the cardinal tickets are incinerated in a cast iron stove, means that they will have to try again.
“We are cold, we are hungry, we are thirsty but we cannot move,” said Reverend Peter Mangum, 61, a priest in the church of Jesus, the good shepherd in Monroe, La. He and three other priests had bone in the square for approximately seven hours, and it was the fourth time of Father Magum waiting for news from a new Pope.
He had stopped in the same place for the elections of John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis, and was going to move until he knew Wednesday’s news. “We had to make sure the smoke was black,” he said.
He took two days to choose Pope Francis in 2013 and Benedict XVI in 2005. No conclave in the twentieth or twenty -first centuries has lasted more than five days.
At a time when the news travels instantly throughout the world, the waiting for the patience required by smoke in the Plaza de San Pedro is a ritual that dates back to the nineteenth century.
For some, anxiety was intense. “I think there is more nervousness among people outside than among the cardinals themselves,” said Tania Radosca, who reached the square at 1 pm
Mrs. Radesca, who is from Venezuela, had been offered as a volunteer to help the jubilee, a year of pilgrimage that occurs every 25 years, and she Artament in Rome about a few months ago. He was in the Plaza de San Pedro on Sunday of Easter and saw Pope Francis for Popemobile.
He died a day later.
Those who arrived early to score places in the barricades closest to the front of the San Pedro covered flags of their countries of origin along the barriers and friends with each mind while settling. Others camped in 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, landed on Tuesday afternoon and went directly to the Plaza de San Pedro on Wednesday to be able to be able to
Pinto, who wore a rosary, said: “I want to be part of something that I have always seen on television, 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.”
In a post office inside the square, Jennifer Raulli, 54, wrote postcards to his university age in the United States. He was in Rome on vacation with one of his daughters, who has just graduated from the Christian University of Texas, and had Gothic to see Pope Francis say Mass on Wednesday. Instead, they arrived at the square to wait for the smoke that could announce the man who replaces him.
“They will be a couple of long hours, but I would not miss it,” said Raulli, who had traveled from Pasadena, California. Mrs. Raulli, who was a presbyterian raised and became Catholicism when she was 37, said Shebrer a “more conservative” pope because he would like the church to be “less politicized” and close to his vision of libraries.
The day of the wait began at 10 in the morning when Giovanni Battista Re, the 91 -year dean of the Faculty of Cardinals, presided over a mass within the Basilica of San Pedro and implored the voting cardinals to choose “a Pope Wow Best Awaken in Awak Today Society.”
As the cardinals cool the sign of La Paz that considers the service, the Cardinal Re embraced Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Secretary of State of the Vatican under Francisco and considered a leading candidate to happen. A microphone caught Cardinal King the best wishes of the cardinal parolin.
Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, another potential candidate that appeared with a fresh haircut, hotly shook the hands of his companions. Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline, the Marseille archbishop and also considered a papal contender, stopped for a prayer in front of the reliquary that contains the remains of Pope John XXIII-A Hero for many liberal Catholics for their efforts to modernize it.
After lunch at the Santa Marta house, the house of accommodation inside the Vatican, where the voters will remain during the conclave, the cardinals walked to the Sistine Chapel. While they proceeded to the chapel, they chanted the litany of the saints, while a choir disturbed the names of the saints. The Cardinals responded with “Ora Pro Nobis” or “Ore for us.” Outside in the square, many who looked on the big video screens flanking the basilica balanced and echoed the song of the cardinals.
Within the Sistine Chapel, the name labels for the cardinals had placed their legs on the long tables where they would vote. Francis appointed many more cardinals than their two predecessors, some from countries away from the Vatican and many of the papal voters, and potential potatoes, are not known.
Around 5:45 pm, Archbishop Diego Giovanni Ravelli, the master of the pontifical liturgical celebrations, announced “extra omnes”, a Latin phrase that means “all outside.” The giant wooden doors closed, leaving the 133 cardinal voters, those under 80 years of age who can vote on the secret ballot, locked inside.
The cardinals will not be able to leave the Vatican until a two -third majority accepts the next Pope. Telephones, internet, television and any contact from outside the Watic of the Vatican are prohibited, an applied custom to deter the process of dragging.
Some veteran voters believed that there would be prolonged vote. “Bring a book,” Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan or New York said he advised other cardinals, in an interview on Tuesday.
The conclave began 16 days after Francis’s death on April 21.
The importance of the moment was not lost in those who had little knowledge or Catholicism.
Yinichiro Yamakoshi, 41, a Japanese tourist who travels with his wife, said that after the Museums of the Vatican and walking through the doors of the four main basilicas that are usually open only Ding the Jubile of the Jubilee, Faile. Althegh, the couple had come to St. Peter’s Square on Tuesday with a guide, returned Wednesday morning for a commemorative photo that marked the conclave.
When the black smoke dissipated in the sky, all that had to be done was to wait another day.
Or all people casually in Rome for the beginning of the papal conclave on Wednesday, the pilgrims of the Catholic Church of Santa Cecilia in Houston may have had among the most moving stories. The 47 faithful who had traveled with their priest, also casually called Francis, this week had scheduled a meeting with Pope Francis on Wednesday. Instead, the final Mass was in the duration of St. Peter’s Square before the conclave began later in the day.
One of the groups, George Smith, 69, said: “It’s a blessing to us.”
When a river of people left the square, a group of novels who had convinced that the smoke would be white shake hands and hugged. “See you tomorrow!” They said.
The report was contributed by Emma Bubola” Elisabetta Povledo” Jason Horowitz” Elizabeth days” Matthew Mpoke Bigg” Bernhard Warner and Josephine de la Bruyère.