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Haggai 2:14
Then answered Haggai, and said, So [is] this people, and so [is] this nation before me, saith the LORD; and so [is] every work of their hands; and that which they offer there [is] uncle
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Posted by: JG on Saturday, April 02, 2005 - 03:05 PM
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VATICAN CITY - Black smoke rose from the Sistine Chapel on Monday, a signal that cardinals had voted but not yet reached a majority needed to choose a new pope.
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VATICAN CITY - Black smoke rose from the Sistine Chapel on Monday, a signal that cardinals had voted but not yet reached a majority needed to choose a new pope.
The black smoke meant the 115 voting cardinal “princes” of the church would retire for the night and return to the chapel Tuesday morning for more balloting in their search for a successor to Pope John Paul II.
If two morning ballots fail to produce a pope, the cardinals could hold two more votes 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!” Many snapped photos of the moment.
Cardinals from six continents had earlier sequestered themselves in the Sistine Chapel, convening the new millennium’s first conclave — a secret, sacred gathering to elect a pope who will guide the world’s 1.1 billion Roman Catholics into a new era.
The doors to the chapel decorated with frescoes by Michelangelo and wired with electronic jamming devices to thwart eavesdropping were shut, leaving the 115 voting “princes” of the church to decide whether to hold their first round of voting Monday or wait until Tuesday.
 | | This is a live webcam from the Vatican. Click here |
Before sequestering themselves, 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.
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No Pope after the first vote on Monday! You can join them live via video webcam
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VATICAN CITY - Black smoke rose from the Sistine Chapel on Monday, a signal that cardinals had voted but not yet reached a majority needed to choose a new pope.
The black smoke meant the 115 voting cardinal “princes” of the church would retire for the night and return to the chapel Tuesday morning for more balloting in their search for a successor to Pope John Paul II.
If two morning ballots fail to produce a pope, the cardinals could hold two more votes 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!” Many snapped photos of the moment.
Cardinals from six continents had earlier sequestered themselves in the Sistine Chapel, convening the new millennium’s first conclave — a secret, sacred gathering to elect a pope who will guide the world’s 1.1 billion Roman Catholics into a new era.
The doors to the chapel decorated with frescoes by Michelangelo and wired with electronic jamming devices to thwart eavesdropping were shut, leaving the 115 voting “princes” of the church to decide whether to hold their first round of voting Monday or wait until Tuesday.
Before sequestering themselves, 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.
During a Mass before the start of the conclave, Ratzinger, a conservative cardinal seen as a front-runner to be the next pope, told fellow prelates they must choose a pontiff who will defend traditional teachings and reject attempts to modernize doctrine.
In his homily, Ratzinger, 78, spoke in unusually blunt terms against “a dictatorship of relativism” — the ideology that there are no absolute truths.
“Having a clear faith, based on the creed of the church, is often labeled today as fundamentalism,” said Ratzinger, who is the Vatican’s doctrinal chief and dean of the College of Cardinals. “Whereas relativism, which is letting oneself be tossed and ’swept along by every wind of teaching,’ looks like the only attitude acceptable to today’s standards.
“We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as for certain and which has as its highest goal one’s own ego and one’s own desires.”
White or black
Thousands 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 elected. The famous stove in the chapel also will bellow black smoke to signal any inconclusive round of voting.
“I feel really cool being here,” said Kathy Mullen, 49, a writer from Beverly, Mass., among the hundreds of pilgrims who lined up early on a sunny morning to pass through metal detectors on their way into the basilica.
The cardinals were to continue their deliberations on Tuesday — two rounds in the morning, two in the afternoon — and every day until a candidate gets two-thirds support: 77 votes. If they 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.
Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said smoke from burned ballot papers enhanced by special chemicals likely could be seen at around noon (6 a.m. EST) and around 7 p.m. (1 p.m. EST) 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.
On Sunday, the cardinals moved into the super-secure Domus Sanctae Marthae, the $20 million hotel that John Paul had constructed inside Vatican City so the cardinals could rest in comfort in private rooms between voting sessions. Swiss Guards, their brightly colored uniforms covered by dark rain gear, saluted the prelates as they were whisked to the residence in limousines.
The daily La Stampa said cardinals gearing up for a stressful stretch of days had packed CD players and headphones in their bags along with prayer books and snacks to nibble on in their rooms.
Conspicuously missing from their quarters were cell phones, newspapers, radios, TVs and Internet connections — all banned in new rules laid down by John Paul II to minimize the chances of news influencing their secret deliberations and to prevent leaks to the outside world.
The Vatican’s security squad swept the chapel for listening devices, and cooks, maids, elevator operators and drivers were sworn to secrecy. Excommunication is a possible punishment for any indiscretions.
No conclave in the past century has lasted more than five days, and the election that made John Paul II pope in October 1978 took eight ballots over three days. He died April 2 at 84 after a pontificate that lasted more than 26 years, history’s third-longest papacy.
Europe has only one quarter of the world’s Catholics but half the cardinals in the conclave. Italy controls the largest block, with 20 votes, but Italians were divided on whether the papacy should return to them after the Polish John Paul.
“I don’t care if he’s Italian or not, just as long as he’s a good man like the last one,” said Romano Mariozzi, a retired plumber from Rome.
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No clear choice
Cardinals faced a choice that boiled down to two options: an older, skilled administrator who could serve as a “transitional” pope while the church absorbs John Paul’s legacy, or a younger dynamic pastor and communicator — perhaps from Latin America or elsewhere in the developing world where the church is growing — who could build on the late pontiff’s popularity over a quarter-century of globe-trotting.
The prelates agreed after John Paul’s funeral not to talk publicly about the process, but the world’s news media have been rife with speculation centering on about two dozen candidates considered “papabile,” Italian for “pope material.”
The name with the biggest buzz was Ratzinger’s, a powerful Vatican official from Germany.
Among the issues sure to figure prominently in the conclave: containing the priest sex-abuse scandals that have cost the church millions in settlements in the United States; coping with a chronic shortage of priests and nuns in the West; halting the stream of people leaving a church whose teachings they no longer find relevant; and improving dialogue with the Islamic world.
“We are praying together with the church for everything to get better,” said Sister Annonciata, 42, a Rwandan nun from the Little Sisters of Jesus order who was in Vatican City on Monday.
Cardinal Salvatore Pappalardo, an Italian who at 86 is too old to vote, told Italian state radio Sunday he was confident the conclave would be guided to the right man.
“Providence sends a pope for every era,” he said.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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Pope John Paul II has died. Will you come and join the thousands who have gathered to say goodbye to the pope. Over 40,000 have filled St. Peter's Square to pray and say Goodbye. You can join them live via Video Cam
| |  | | Please click here to join them in prayer live |
April 2 Pope John Paul II has died. Will you come and join the thousands who have gathered to say goodbye to the pope. Over 40,000 have filled St. Peter's Square to pray and say Goodbye. You can join them live via Video Cam
Thousands of people streamed into St. Peter's Square today, many lingering below the window of the apartment where Pope John Paul II layid on his deathbed, keeping vigil as the pontiff passed away. He is now in the hands of Jesus.
The basilica of St. Peter's was open for visitors and a line of people snaked through one side of the semicircular colonnade leading to the church that the pope has presided over during his 26-year pontificate, the third longest in history.
``I'm here to pray that the pope will be welcomed in heaven,'' said Massimo Passoni, 50, a Roman, who was 24 years old when John Paul was selected as pope in 1978.
A line of police barricades closed off the semicircular mouth of the plaza, which has an oval shape. A line of tripods gripping cameras and their two-foot telephoto lenses pointed at windows of the pope's apartment, above the marble columns.
Last night, the crowd in the square swelled to more than 40,000. Archbishop Angelo Comastri, the vicar for Vatican City, led them in reciting the Rosary, telling the crowd that ``Christ is opening the door to the pope.'' The Vatican kept the plaza open all night to accommodate pilgrims and spectators.
The pontiff is slipping in and out of consciousness and his medical condition remains ``very grave,'' Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said in a briefing at 11:30 a.m. today.
`Welcomed in Heaven'
 Polish-born Karol Jozef Wojtyla has held the throne of St. Peter for more than 26 years, the third-longest pontificate in history. The length of his papacy is only surpassed by that of Pius IX in the 19th century and St. Peter. He was the first non- Italian elected pope since Adrian VI more than 450 years ago.
Across town at San Giovanni in Laterano, the church overseen by the pope in his role as Bishop of Rome, some of Italy's top politicians last night came to hear Cardinal Camillo Ruini lead a special mass for the ailing pontiff. Ruini is also the cardinal who will be responsible for announcing the death of John Paul II to the world.
Politicians from Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's ruling coalition and the parties of the opposition suspended campaigning for regional elections on Sunday and Monday and many turned up at the mass. Berlusconi, President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi and Romano Prodi, leader of the opposition and former European Union Commission president, were also at the service.
``I know he really loves people,'' Italy's Minister for European Affairs Rocco Buttiglione said in an interview. ``When I first met him, I touched his hand and he gave me the impression that he would give up his life for people.''
`Proud'
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``We came just to be here and we will stay as long as feel what we are feeling now,'' said Cristiana Pizzingrilli, who crossed the city on her moped to be at the Vatican. ``I can't explain it. There is just such silence in this square.''
At 7:00 a.m. today in Wadowice, the pope's birthplace in south-eastern Poland, the Sacrifice for Saint Mary of the Virgin Church filled with people praying for the pope's health.
``I'm proud of him,'' said Czeslawa Tyrybon, 73, who was standing in front of the church. ``He's more than a moral authority. I can't define how much he means to me.'' Article from April 2 (Bloomberg)
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