The roof of the Sistine Chapel where the cardinal are kept in isolation to choose the next Pope. Photograph by Bren Buenaluz
Black smoke has issued from the Sistine Chapel in Rome, signalling the cardinals have still yet to come to an agreement as to who will become the next Pope to succeed Pope Benedict who resigned last month.
The 115 cardinals that make up the Papal conclave will be shut away in the Sistine Chapel and a nearby residence until a two-thirds majority agree on a leader for the Catholic Church. Mobile phone blocking masts have been erected around the Chapel to make sure that no cardinals leak any of the discussions via digital media such as Twitter, keeping the cardinals in both physical and digital isolation.
The cardinals vote four times per day until a new Pope is elected, with the smoke from a chimney above the Sistine Chapel signifying their progress to the world; black smoke means that no decision has been made and white smoke signalling an election.
There was no clear frontrunner before the conclave, although a few names have been mentioned as possible successors:
- Joao Braz de Aviz: Brazilian cardinal with a focus on welfare for the poor
- Odilo Scherer: Archbishop of Sao Paulo, Brazil – the largest Catholic diocese in the world
- Peter Turkson: Archbishop of Cape Coast – the first Ghanaian cardinal and seen as a moderate
- Luis Tagle: Archbishop of Manila – media savvy cardinal and seen as a man of the people
- Leonardo Sandri: Served as Vatican’s Chief of Staff 2000-2007
- Timothy Dolan: Archbishop of New York and one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in 2012
- Christoph Schoenborn: Archbishop of Vienna – respected by other religions and seen as Benedict’s intellectual protege
- Angelo Scola: Archbishop of Milan – known as the “crown prince of Catholicism” by the Italian media
