VATICAN CITY. There was no room to kneel as the Roman crowds used to in St Peter’s Square when a new Pope gave his first blessing on the balcony. But we got a papal blessing nonetheless, and for the first time I saw a pope weep – he had been Vicar of Christ for less than two hours.
On 8 May history unfolded in front of me for about an hour and a half, starting at 6.07 pm when the chalky white smoke first began rising from the chimney temporarily erected on the roof of the Sistine Chapel.
Its appearance of the smoke was not expected. There was black smoke just before noon, after the first vote of the day at 10.45 am. After the long delay the evening before, which ruined many Roman dinner plans, it was seen as a sign that the cardinals were now getting into the swing of the arcane voting ritual in the Sistine chapel where they were locked up.
