The Catholic Church's 133 cardinal
electors were set to return to the Sistine Chapel on Thursday
afternoon to resume voting on Pope Francis's successor after
failing to settle on a new pontiff in their second and third
votes of the papal conclave earlier in the day, as indicated by
black smoke puffing from the chapel's chimney.
As expected, the first vote of the conclave on Wednesday evening
was also unsuccessful.
The cardinals, who returned to the Santa Marta residence inside
the Vatican where most of them are staying for lunch after the
morning's votes, will remain behind closed doors with no contact
with the outside world until a new leader of the Catholic Church
is chosen.
A two-thirds majority is necessary to become the 267th pontiff,
meaning the magic number is 89 votes.
There are set to be up to two more votes and one more smoke
signal on Thursday.
The next smoke signal will not come until around 7:00 pm unless
the first vote of the afternoon is decisive, in which case the
white smoke will come out at around 5:30 p.m.
Francis died on April 21, Easter Monday, at the age of 88 after
12 years at the helm of the Church.
He succumbed to a stroke after over five weeks in hospital
fighting life-threatening pneumonia.
Francis had appeared to be slightly on the mend and had insisted
on riding his popemobile around St Peter's Square and mingling
with crowds of faithful the day before he died, flying in the
face of doctors' advice.
Currently Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin of Italy and
Filipino Luis Antonio Tagle are leading the betting to be the
Argentine pontiff's successor.
Tagle has just overtaken Parolin to become the bookmakers'
favourite.
The odds on Tagle were down to 3-1 for William Hill , while
those on Parolin were 7-2.
Next were Italian cardinals Matteo Zuppi and Pierbattista
Pizzaballa, both on 6-1, while the odds on Ghana's Peter Turkson
lengthened from 5-1 to 9-1.
French prelate Jean-Marc Aveline, meanwhile, made a leap
forward, with the odds dropping from 33-1 six days ago to 18-1
now.
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