Cardinals ready for day two as papal election deadlocked

Black smoke poured from the Sistine Chapel chimney at the end of balloting yesterday, signalling that cardinals had failed to elect a pope on their first try.

The cardinals held the first day of their conclave deeply divided over the problems of the church and who best among them could fix them following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI.

The Vatican made clear it did not expect a winner on the first ballot. The cardinals last night returned to the Vatican’s Santa Marta hotel and were due to return to the Apostolic Palace for Mass this morning and a new round of voting.

Surrounded by Michelangelo’s imposing frescos imagining the beginning and the end of the world, the 115 scarlet-robed men had entered their conclave with a final appeal for unity to heal the divisions that have been exposed by Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation and revelations of corruption in the Vatican bureaucracy.

Led by prelates holding a crucifix and candles, the cardinals chanted the Litany of Saints, the Gregorian chant imploring the intercession of the saints, as they filed into the chapel and took their oath of secrecy.

With a dramatic closing of the thick double doors, the ritual-filled conclave began.

No conclave of the past century has lasted more than five days, and the fastest vote was for Pope Pius XII.