NEWS STORY: Cardinals Fail to Elect New Pope in First Day of Conclave

c. 2005 Religion News Service VATICAN CITY _ Roman Catholic cardinals meeting behind closed doors on Monday (April 18) failed to elect a new pope on their first attempt, burning their ballots in a cast-iron stove that sent black smoke swirling through the early evening sky above St. Peter’s Basilica. Dense black smoke rose from […]

c. 2005 Religion News Service

VATICAN CITY _ Roman Catholic cardinals meeting behind closed doors on Monday (April 18) failed to elect a new pope on their first attempt, burning their ballots in a cast-iron stove that sent black smoke swirling through the early evening sky above St. Peter’s Basilica.

Dense black smoke rose from the chimney above the Sistine Chapel at 7:58 p.m. (1:58 p.m. EDT) as a large crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Square. The 115 cardinals will start again Tuesday morning, with two ballots scheduled in the morning and two in the afternoon.


When the cardinals eventually elect the church’s 265th pope to succeed the late John Paul II, who died April 2, white smoke will signal the first pope elected in the 21st century for the world’s 1.1 billion Catholics.

The voting process will last as long as it takes for a cardinal to receive the 77 votes _ a two-thirds majority _ necessary for election. Most church observers expect a new pope to be in place by the end of the week.

The conclave opened Monday afternoon as the red-robed cardinals, chanting a Latin hymn of “Come, Holy Spirit,” solemnly filed into the Sistine Chapel and swore secrecy on the centuries-old process used to elect a new pope.

“The entire church, united with us in prayer, invokes the instant grace of the Holy Spirit so that a worthy pastor of all the flock of Christ may be elected,” Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, dean of the College of Cardinals, told his 114 fellow cardinals at the start of the ceremony opening the conclave at late afternoon.

In a preview of the issues overshadowing the election, Ratzinger delivered a stern warning from the pulpit of St. Peter’s Basilica earlier Monday, condemning the “dictatorship of relativism” that challenges the church’s claim on absolute truth.

Following an elaborate ritual that has evolved over nine centuries, the cardinals processed slowly from St. Peter’s Basilica through the Apostolic Palace to the Sistine Chapel. Led by a choir, they invoked the prayers of the saints and sang “Veni, Creator Spiritus,” asking the Holy Spirit to fill their hearts with grace.

Once inside the Renaissance chapel, the cardinals _ representing 52 countries and five continents _ took seats at two rows of long tables on either side of the room facing inward. On the ceiling above is Michelangelo’s magnificent fresco of “The Creation,” and at the end of the room behind the altar, his stern “Last Judgment.”


One by one, each of the 115 electors placed one hand on the Gospels and swore secrecy about anything relating to the conclave and promised to faithfully lead the church if elected pope.

After the oaths, Archbishop Piero Marini, master of pontifical liturgical ceremonies, cleared the chapel by uttering the Latin words “Extra omnes!” _ “Everybody out!” _ except for the 115 cardinals and one non-voting cardinal, Tomas Spidlik.

After Marini swung shut the chapel’s tall carved walnut doors, Spidlik, an 85-year-old Czech theologian, delivered a brief meditation on the task before the electors. Spidlik and Marini left the chapel, and Swiss Guards took up posts outside the closed doors for the duration.

There is no debate during the conclave, only prayer and meditation, but at a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Monday morning the cardinals heard a stern warning from Ratzinger against any deviation from fundamental church doctrine.

Ratzinger, the powerful German prelate who was John Paul’s doctrinal watchdog and is now considered a top candidate for pope, condemned the “dictatorship of relativism” in his homily at the Mass, “Pro Eligendo Romano Pontifice (For the Election of the Roman Pontiff).”

Even though Vatican protocol forbids outright campaigning by the cardinals, Ratzinger’s homily could have served as the platform for the conservative wing of Catholicism that seeks to maintain strict orthodoxy of thought.


“How many winds of doctrine we have known in recent decades, how many ideological currents, how many ways of thinking,” he said. “The small boat of thought of many Christians has often been tossed about by these waves _ thrown from one extreme to the other: from Marxism to liberalism, even to libertinism; from collectivism to radical individualism; from atheism to a vague religious mysticism; from agnosticism to syncretism, and so forth. Every day new sects are created.”

The Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which Ratzinger headed for 24 years under John Paul II, led a crackdown on Marxist-oriented Liberation Theology, religious relativism and the fusing of disparate religious thought and practice.

Ratzinger praised “a clear faith based on the creed of the Church,” which he said “is often labeled today as fundamentalism.” He denounced “relativism, which is letting oneself be tossed and swept along by every wind of teaching.”

“We are moving towards a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as for certain and which has as its highest goal one’s own ego and one’s own desires,” he warned.

Ratzinger closed his homily by praying that God, “after the great gift of Pope John Paul II, … again gives us a pastor according to his own heart, a pastor who guides us to knowledge in Christ, to his life and to true joy.”

Some 7,000 worshippers filling the basilica applauded the homily and broke into applause again as the cardinals, wearing bright red vestments and white miters, walked down the aisle in procession at the end of the Mass.


Cardinals have been locked up in conclaves (from the Latin for “with a key”) to hasten their proceedings ever since a 13th century election lasted more than three years.

The use of smoke to announce the outcome of the ballots began only in 1878 with the election of Leo XIII. Between the collapse of the papal states in 1870 and the agreement with Italy that created the modern Vatican City in 1929, popes considered themselves prisoners in the Vatican, and the smoke was their signal to the outside world.

(OPTIONAL TRIM FOLLOWS)

John Paul II left his imprint on the papal elections with his 1996 rules that will govern the conclave. In addition, he built a $20 million hotel, the Domus Santa Marta, to house the cardinals during the conclave.

When the last of the cardinal-voters moved into the hotel Sunday, the complex was declared off-limits to all but personnel who have sworn secrecy. The cardinals will not have access to telephones, radios, television, newspapers, computers or mail for the duration.

Vatican officials have cleared a route for the cardinals through the Vatican gardens from the hotel to the Sistine Chapel. Technicians swept the chapel, which is next door to St. Peter’s Basilica, for electronic bugs to ensure secrecy.

On each ballot, each cardinal writes his choice for pope on a rectangular card that is printed with the words “Eligo in Summum Pontificem (I Elect as Supreme Pontiff).” He folds the ballot twice and drops it in a silver and bronze urn. Fellow cardinals, whose names are drawn by lot, count the ballots.


Starting Tuesday, there will be two ballots each morning and two each afternoon. A two-thirds majority _ 77 votes _ is needed to elect a pope, but John Paul’s rules allow the cardinals to implement an absolute majority later in the voting.

Ballots will be burned twice a day in a cylindrical-shaped cast iron stove about 3 feet tall, which has been used for the last five conclaves, starting with the election of Pius XII in 1939. A shiny copper tube carries the smoke to the chimney.

For the first time, the Vatican is resorting to electronics to make sure there is no confusion for the huge crowds awaiting the outcome in St. Peter’s Square. A second cast-iron apparatus connected to the tube will help to propel the burning ballots upward.

The Vatican said, however, it still uses the traditional method of adding wet straw to the ballots to make white smoke. This year, the bells of St. Peter’s will also be rung to signal a successful election.

MO/KRE/PH END POLK

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