DILI, 08 May 2025 (TATOLI) – Black smoke billowed from the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel just after 9 p.m. local time, signaling that the first day of the conclave had failed to elect a successor to Pope Francis.
St. Peter’s Square was packed with tens of thousands of people awaiting the announcement of the new pope.
In the coming days, the cardinals will vote up to four times a day until white smoke emerges from the Sistine Chapel’s St Peter’s Square, signaling new Pope is found.
To be elected as the new pope, a candidate needed a two-thirds majority, or at least 89 votes, from the 133 cardinals.
The duration of the conclave is uncertain, but the most recent one, which elected Pope Francis in 2013, lasted only one day, while the longest conclave—the election of Pope Gregory X in 1271—took nearly three years.
Pope Francis, who died on Easter Monday at the age of 88, was laid to rest on April 26, 2025 in a simple tomb in the Basilica of Saint Mary Major, a couple of miles away from the Vatican City.
Pope Francis, the Latin American pontiff, known for his humble style and concern for the poor, was the second pope to visit Timor-Leste—after St. John Paul II, who travelled to the country on 12 October 1989 during the Indonesian occupation. He was the first pontiff to visit the country since it gained independence from Indonesia in 2002.
During his three-day stay in the country from September 9 to 11, 2024, Pope Francis met with some of the country’s national and religious leaders, visited vulnerable groups, and spoke to massive crowds of the faithful in Dili. The Pope left a message of hope, unity, and commitment to peace, emphasizing the importance of youth and the protection of the cultural and spiritual values of the Timorese people.
TATOLI
