First Vote: No New Pope

Black smoke wafted from the Sistine Chapel's chimney Monday evening, signaling that the cardinals sequestered inside had failed to elect a new leader. Thus ended the first day of the first papal conclave of the new millennium to elect a pope to lead the world's 1.1 billion Roman Catholics.

Vatican Radio pronounced the smoke black, meaning the 115 voting "princes" of the church would retire for the night and return to the chapel Tuesday morning for two more rounds of balloting in their search for a successor to Pope John Paul II. If those rounds fail to produce a pope, the cardinals will hold two additional rounds Tuesday afternoon.

Some 40,000 people who packed St. Peter's Square to stare at the stovepipe jutting from the chapel roof shouted, "It's black! It's black!" and snapped photos.

The cardinals, from six continents and representing 52 countries, began their secret deliberations late in the afternoon after the massive doors of the chapel, which is decorated with frescoes by Michelangelo and wired with electronic jamming devices to thwart eavesdropping, were ceremonially closed.

Before sequestering themselves inside the chapel, the cardinals read out an oath of secrecy led by German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who stood before a large crucifix adorned with a golden Jesus. One by one, they filed up to a Book of the Gospels, placed their right hands on it and pronounced a second oath to keep secret their deliberations to elect a successor to Pope John Paul II, who died April 2 at age 84.

The cardinals will hold four daily rounds of voting — two in the morning, two in the afternoon — daily until a candidate gets two-thirds support: 77 votes. If no one is elected after three days, voting pauses for up to one day.

If cardinals remain deadlocked late in the second week of voting, they can vote to change the rules so a winner can be elected with a simple majority: 58 votes.

"It reminds me so much of the political conventions that we used to have in this country before we went to the primary system to select our candidates," said CBS Evening News anchor Bob Schieffer.

"There aren't parties in the same sense that we think of political parties," said CBS News Analyst Father Paul Robichaud. "But there are groups within the college of cardinals that have very specific concerns, concerns about the third world, concerns about the value and culture of life, concerns specifically about war and peace, concerns about the role of women, concerns about abortion, birth control."

Ratzinger's admonition read, in part: "In a particular way, we promise and swear to observe with the greatest fidelity and with all persons, clerical or lay, secrecy regarding everything that in any way relates to the election of the Roman Pontiff and regarding what occurs in the place of the election, directly or indirectly related to the results of the voting; we promise and swear not to break this secret in any way..."

Ratzinger — a powerful Vatican official often mentioned as a leading papal contender — began by reciting a prayer at the Apostolic Palace. The cardinals chanted the Litany of the Saints as they made the short walk to the chapel, led by altar servers carrying two long, lit white candles and a metal crucifix.

In a stately and colorful procession carried live on television, they walked past a pair of Swiss Guards in red plumed hats standing at attention at the chapel entrance and took two steps into the voting area, where special devices were installed beneath a false floor to block cell phone calls or bugs in an unprecedented effort to secure the proceedings.

Most of the cardinals were clad in crimson vestments and hats except for two Eastern Rite prelates — Lubomyr Husar of Ukraine and Ignace Moussa I Daoud of Syria — who wore black. Ratzinger entered the chapel last — an honor bestowed upon the dean of the College of Cardinals.

Before the procession, Ratzinger asked for prayers from the church that a pastor fit to lead all of Christ's flock would be elected.

With Michelangelo's "Last Judgment" as a backdrop behind the altar, depicting a muscular Jesus amid masses of people ascending to heaven or falling to hell, the cardinals took their assigned places behind their name placards, with a copy of the conclave ritual on their desks.

"I slept well, and now my ideas are clear," French Cardinal Paul Poupard said as he headed into a special pre-conclave Mass held earlier Monday at St. Peter's Basilica. "I have realized the seriousness of the election. The Holy Spirit will do the rest."

In his homily at the Mass, Ratzinger, who presided from the main altar usually reserved for a pope, was applauded by fellow cardinals as he asked God to give the church "a pastor according to his own heart, a pastor who guides us to knowledge in Christ, to his love and to true joy."

But in unusually blunt terms, he made clear what type of pastor that should be: one who should not allow "a dictatorship of relativism" — the ideology that there are no absolute truths — to take deeper root.

Throngs of pilgrims and tourists converged on St. Peter's Square to watch the chapel chimney for the white smoke that ultimately will tell the world that the church's 265th pontiff has been chosen. The famous stove in the chapel also will billow black smoke to signal any inconclusive sessions of voting.

Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said smoke from burned ballot papers enhanced by special chemicals likely could be seen at about noon (6 a.m. EDT) and about 7 p.m. (1 p.m. EDT) on each day of voting by the cardinal electors, all of whom are under age 80. At some point soon after the new pope is chosen, the Vatican also will ring bells.