VATICAN CITY Catholic cardinals have resumed voting to elect a new pope. The princes of the ancient Roman church are in the ornate Sistine Chapel for a second day Wednesday, trying to decide on a pontiff to replace Benedict XVI, who shocked the world by resigning on February 28. Two votes conducted Wednesday morning were inconclusive, but they can vote twice more before calling it a day.
Black smoke billowed from a small chimney on top of the iconic chapel Wednesday just before lunchtime in Rome, signaling that neither morning ballot saw any candidate garner 77 votes of the 115 available votes, the number required for a new pope to be elected.
All voting is conducted in complete secrecy and the results of each vote are never made public.
The cardinals will vote up to four times each day until the 77-vote threshold is reached.
Some of the cardinals, including New York's Timothy Dolan, expressed optimism prior to entering the conclave that it should be over within just a couple days, but others, including Americans, have suggested more time will be required due to there being no strong frontrunner heading into the process.
"This is very normal,'' Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi insisted in a news conference between Wednesday's voting sessions. "It's not a sign of particular divisions within the college, but rather of a normal process of discernment.''
CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips reports, however, that serious fault lines in the College of Cardinals did emerge as they prepared for the conclave, pitting more traditionalist prelates -- many of them entrenched in the Vatican establishment and bureaucracy -- against those more interested in reform. Many of the reform-minded cardinals come from outside Italy, and think the Church's bureaucracy, known as the Curia, and penchant for secrecy are at the root of its problems.
Some secrets, nonetheless, are sacred. CBS News consultant and Inside the Vatican magazine editor Delia Gallagher explains that the cardinals have sworn an oath of secrecy and risk excommunication if they speak to anyone apart from the other cardinal electors during the conclave process.
Gallagher says the cardinals likely narrowed the field of potential candidates down in their Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning votes to just a couple of men, but if they fail to reach an absolute majority consensus by the end of Wednesday, that dynamic will shift and the prospects for a short conclave will diminish sharply.
If it continues into Thursday, Gallaher says it will be a sign that the field is still relatively open. A drawn-out conclave is also thought to indicate a greater chance for the election of an "outsider" -- a cardinal from the Americas, Asia or Africa.
"The bottom line is that if today fails to deliver a pope, all bets are off in terms of who might step out on the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica wearing white," John Allen, a respected Vatican journalist for the National Catholic Reporter, wrote Wednesday.
If the cardinals are still deadlocked on Friday night Church rules say they must take a day off from voting for prayer and reflection. That day of rest would fall on Saturday, with the voting to resume on Sunday.
Interesting news from the British publication "The Independent", which I don't recall making the news in the state...
"...A day ahead of the papal conclave, faces at the scandal-struck Vatican were even redder than usual after it emerged that the Holy See had purchased a 23 million Euro share of a Rome apartment block that houses Europe's biggest gay sauna.
The senior Vatican figure sweating the most due to the unlikely proximity of the gay Europa Multiclub is probably Cardinal Ivan Dias, the head of the "Congregation for Evangelisation of Peoples", who is due to participate in tomorrow's election at the Sistine Chapel.
This 76-year-old "prince of the church" enjoys a 12-room apartment on the first-floor of the imposing palazzo, at 2 Via Carducci, just yards from the ground floor entrance to the steamy flesh pot. There are 18 other Vatican apartments in the block, many of which house priests.
The sauna's website promotes one of its special "bear nights", with a video in which a rotund, hairy man strips down before changing into a priest's outfit. It says Bruno, "a hairy, overweight pastor of souls, is free to the music of his clergyman, remaining in a thong, because he wants to expose body and soul".
There was further embarrassment for the Holy See when the press observed that thanks to generous tax breaks it received from the last Berlusconi government, the church will have avoided hefty payments to the Italian state. The properties are recognised as part of the Holy City.
Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Pope Emeritus Benedict's widely disliked right-hand man, who held the Vatican's purse strings during the last pontificate, was said to have been the brains behind the purchase of 2 Via Carduccio in 2008..."
You would think that if their God had anything to do with this, he would have let them know who to pick right away. A house divided can not stand. What a fairy tale. They are just an out of date, old fashioned gentlemen's club.
This is pathic story every day. Can't believe the catholic church is still in business after all the gay priests were busted molesting young boys......the rich hope all the poor people keep going to church tho, it keeps them in line...they base their life,s on the invisible man
this is so rediculous, this is nothing but a cult, all boys club, all they want is power, read the history of the church, that ought to wake you up, murder, power & now they can add pedophilia. Funny most of their rules are not God's rule but church rules, of course only you have to follow them, not the priests.... seems to me this goes against all that the Bible teaches, first of all the commandments, "Thou shalt not have false God's before me"... Look how they live, like a king surrounded by gold & treasures & now they want to close schools because they don't have money to pay for them...... seems to me they should shed some of this crap their sprewing on everyone & live the humble life of Christ!!!!!!
The CC is more akin to the Mafia ... hiding/shielding criminals and hiding money from lawsuits .... a bank that's not accountable to anyone ... kept in secrecy, only men in charge .... yep, sounds more like a crime family
I'm glad that the Catholic Church is going to choose a new Pope.
Hopefully they will choose a Pope that is very very conservative, one that will expose and excommunicate those who are guilty of heinous sins, those who continue in sin without repentance, and those that do not follow the faith, be they priests, nuns, or other Catholics.
Time to re-establish the faith, and remove the wolves.
Thanks. Well said. The only thing worse than a corrupt Catholic, is a Cafeteria Catholic, like most westerners are! They moan and gripe about their faith, pick and choose which doctrines to follow, when instead they should have the courage to leave it, and form their own denomination. The Catholic Church would be better without them.
Yes...I think. Maybe. Maybe not. The Bible is CONFUSING! For instance, Leviticus 18/22 says it is an abomination for a man to lie with another man. What about standing-up? But I think that could be rationalizing. Just like the NBA, the NFL, the NHL, the PGA etc. when they play on the Sabbath. According to Exodus 35/2 they should all be put to death. Wow...imagine the ratings for that television show! Wait. What about all the ministers and priests in this world? They work on Sundays... And...about those football players...Leviticus 11/7 says it is unclean to touch a dead pig. Pigskin. If they wear gloves and play Thursday and Monday evenings only...is that okay? Does Notre Dame get special dispensation to not wear gloves.... Boston College? (I've watched both schools and all their players don't wear gloves!) Finally...now that I think of it...what should we do with all these fruit farmers in West Michigan who plant different crops side-by-side? Oh my God...and all those women we see in the mall and elsewhere wearing garments with two different threads!!!! Maybe all the men in America who were hit hard by the Wall St, greed and the Bush/Republican Party economic policies that brought our way of life down on its knees...could follow Exodus 21/7 to make-up the lost revenue. By selling their daughters! There goes the national debt !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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"...A day ahead of the papal conclave, faces at the scandal-struck Vatican were even redder than usual after it emerged that the Holy See had purchased a 23 million Euro share of a Rome apartment block that houses Europe's biggest gay sauna.
The senior Vatican figure sweating the most due to the unlikely proximity of the gay Europa Multiclub is probably Cardinal Ivan Dias, the head of the "Congregation for Evangelisation of Peoples", who is due to participate in tomorrow's election at the Sistine Chapel.
This 76-year-old "prince of the church" enjoys a 12-room apartment on the first-floor of the imposing palazzo, at 2 Via Carducci, just yards from the ground floor entrance to the steamy flesh pot. There are 18 other Vatican apartments in the block, many of which house priests.
The sauna's website promotes one of its special "bear nights", with a video in which a rotund, hairy man strips down before changing into a priest's outfit. It says Bruno, "a hairy, overweight pastor of souls, is free to the music of his clergyman, remaining in a thong, because he wants to expose body and soul".
There was further embarrassment for the Holy See when the press observed that thanks to generous tax breaks it received from the last Berlusconi government, the church will have avoided hefty payments to the Italian state. The properties are recognised as part of the Holy City.
Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Pope Emeritus Benedict's widely disliked right-hand man, who held the Vatican's purse strings during the last pontificate, was said to have been the brains behind the purchase of 2 Via Carduccio in 2008..."
LOL! "Right-hand" man?
OOPS!!!
Anyone who is actually sitting around watching that smoke, needs to get a life.
Made men electing the next "god" father ...
Hopefully they will choose a Pope that is very very conservative, one that will expose and excommunicate those who are guilty of heinous sins, those who continue in sin without repentance, and those that do not follow the faith, be they priests, nuns, or other Catholics.
Time to re-establish the faith, and remove the wolves.