When the Cardinal voted to pass the first vote, thousands of people gathered in St. Peter's Square in Vatican City.
Smoke has appeared in the chimneys at Sistine Chapel, indicating that the cardinal's internally blocked chimneys failed to elect a new pope in their first meeting vote.
Thousands of people gathered in St. Peter's Square in Vatican City, waiting for the smoke, which was about three hours and 15 minutes after quarantining 133 Cardinals.
After the death of Pope Francis, the cardinal from about 70 countries was recalled to Rome after 12 years as president of the Catholic Church. When they shut down from outside on Wednesday, their cell phones were surrendered, and radio waves around the Vatican were blocked to prevent communications until they were elected as the new pope.
The Cardinal will return to Sistine Church on Thursday to vote again and will continue to do so until one of them gets a two-thirds majority (89 votes) to be elected Pope.
The meeting begins with a solemn parade of Cardinals and other clergy live on the large screen in front of St. Peter's Basilica.
A large crowd was waiting in St Peter's Square, watching the screen showing chimneys and occasional seagulls. When some are depressed, when smoke finally gushs out, those who keep cheering.
Ireland Tourism Catriona Hawe, a 60-year-old Irish tourist, said: "It will be perfect and it's a pleasure to be here."
"Francis is smart, progressive, a man, even though he doesn't move forward as quickly as I want," she said.
“If the church elects conservatives, the church will not do anything to help.”
At 21:00 on Wednesday evening, black smoke surfaced from the chimney, indicating that the first vote was held at the meeting and ended without a pope. pic.twitter.com/akxuubdk2g
- Vatican News (@vaticannews) May 7, 2025
Al Jazeera's Hoda Abdel-Hamid said in a report in Vatican City that black smoke means not being elected as a new pope.
“In memory of no life, the pope was elected on the first day of the meeting,” she said.
“It’s usually a way for the cardinal to understand how things are going and where voters are thinking,” Abdel-Hamid said.
Francis named 108 of the 133 "Church Princes" as 108, and selected many pastors from countries such as Mongolia, Sweden and Tonga who had never had a cardinal.
His decision to decide that more than 120 cardinal voters usually limits gives extra uncertainty in a process that is always full of suspense.
Many cardinals didn’t meet until last week and lamented that they needed more time to get to know each other and raised a question of how long it would take for a person to ensure the votes needed to be the 267th Pope.
Francis and his predecessor Benedict XVI were both elected within two days, but the longest papal election lasted 1,006 days, from 1268 to 1271.
There is no clear leader to replace Francis, and the Cardinal represents a series of progressive and conservative traditions within the church. There are more than a dozen names circulating from Pierbattista Pizzaballa in Italy to Peter Erdo in Hungary and Malcolm Ranjith in Sri Lanka.
But this institution, which has been historically 2,000 years, faces many challenges: the number of pastors, the role of women, the Vatican’s troubled balance sheet, the adaptation of churches into the modern world, the ongoing consequences of the abuse of papers, and the West- increasingly empty benches.
The new pope must also face acts of diplomatic balance in geopolitical uncertainty and deep divisions within the church.