Cardinals have gathered in the Sistine Chapel.
The election of the Catholic Churchโs next Pope is officially underway as a record-setting 133 voting cardinals from all over the world took an oath of secrecy and were locked in the Sistine Chapel on the evening of May 7.
Roughly three hours later, black smoke emanated from the chimney atop the Sistine Chapel, notifying the tens of thousands of faithful gathering in St. Peterโs Square that the first vote had been cast but had failed to reach the necessary consensus.
The next vote will be cast on the morning of May 8.
The first dayโs events began in St. Peterโs Basilica at 10 a.m. local time, with the Mass for the Election of the Roman Pontiff, led by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, dean of the College of Cardinals.
Like Pope Francisโs funeral Mass, this Mass, while primarily undertaken in Italian, integrated several of the worldโs languages, including Latin, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Swahili, and Mandarin Chinese.
Cardinal Battista Re said in his homily, which was translated in real time by the Vatican, that the upcoming vote was โan act of highest human and ecclesial responsibility,โ and he emphasized that this latest successor to St. Peter the Apostle must exemplify the love Jesus Christ showed his disciples and foster communion among the worldโs clergy, peoples, and cultures.
He also called those listening to pray that this successor will be someone who meets the needs of the world and church of today, and one โwho knows how best to awaken the consciousness of all, and the moral spiritual energies in todayโs society characterized by great technological progress, but which tends to forget God.โ
Afterward, the cardinals had the opportunity to begin moving into the apartments in the Vaticanโs Domus Sanctae Marthae, where they will stay for the duration of the conclave.
โThe conclave is not a political tug-of-war, but rather a profoundly spiritual moment of continuity in the Churchโs more than 2,000-year history,โ Ashley McGuire, a senior fellow with The Catholic Association, said in an email to The Epoch Times.
โThe successor of St. Peter will have to be a man who can courageously unite the worldโs 1.4 billion Catholicsโwho are facing challenges ranging from radical secularism and moral relativism to outright violent persecutionโwith clarity and compassion about the fundamental truths of our faith.โ
Byย T.J. Muscaro