The first night of the conclave wasn’t supposed to start with a curveball.
For all the nervous expectation among the thousands in St. Peter’s Square on Wednesday evening, they were all expecting the same thing: black smoke from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel around 7 p.m., a sign that the cardinals had not elected a new pope after the inaugural round of voting.
But when the smoke didn’t appear at 7 — nor 7:30, or 8 — speculation among Roman natives and visitors in the square started to grow: Was there trouble lighting the stove to burn their first ballots? Did the retired papal preacher, Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa, go long in his opening reflection to the cardinals? Or had they decided not to vote at all tonight?
As the square’s transient seagull population took turns perching near the Vatican chimney before the black smoke, onlookers seemed impatient, but not frustrated. After all, a conclave is supposed to keep you guessing.
“It’s electric. There’s so much joy. Why would you want to be anywhere else?” said Tim Connors, a Catholic from Nashville, Tennessee, as a chilly breeze blew through the square while smoke watch went into overtime.
Connors had been on a pilgrimage to Lourdes, France with fellow members of the Order of Malta when he learned the conclave was set to start the day the pilgrimage ended. He had little doubt about what to do next.
“It was the Holy Spirit at work,” said Connors. “I jumped on a plane [from France] and came here, and now I’m sitting here waiting for the pope.”
Connors, who met Pope Francis last November at a Vatican audience, said the jovial atmosphere in the square was a sign of the mark Francis left on the Church.
“The spirit here is very Pope Francis," he said. "People love him. What we’re hoping for is somebody with his big tent, field-hospital approach. Maybe a little more unity.”
Auxiliary Bishop Christopher Cooke of Philadelphia had traveled to Italy the week after Easter for a retreat pilgrimage with several priests that was supposed to include the canonization Mass for Blessed Carlo Acutis. They ended up at Pope Francis’ April 26 funeral Mass that weekend instead.
“It’s tremendous providence,” said Cooke while awaiting the Wednesday night smoke signal in the square with fellow Philly priest Father Wesly Taveras. “This just fell in our lap, so we were going to be here.”
Earlier that morning, Cooke and Taveras attended the "Pro Eligendo Romano Pontifice" (“For the Election of the Roman Pontiff”) Mass inside St. Peter’s Basilica. Cooke said hearing prayers in so many languages made the Mass feel even more “powerful.”
“You could just feel the fire of the Church praying all through the world, that the Holy Spirit directs us for the next pope,” said Cooke, whom Pope Francis appointed a bishop in 2023.
Taveras was encouraged by the words of Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re’s homily, delivered in Italian: “The election of the new pope is not a simple succession of persons, yet it is always the Apostle Peter who returns.”
“It’s not a matter of whether it’s right or left, or this emphasis or the other,” said Taveras. “The pope will be provided by the Holy Spirit, and we have the sure hope that this will be a beautiful pope, that we will get to know him and to love him.”
The “smoke watch” also drew non-Catholic tourists who couldn’t resist the opportunity to witness a piece of history.
“It’s such a historic time in the history of our lives, so it’s kind of, we have to be here,” said Debbie Boone, who happened to be vacationing in Rome this week with her husband, David.
As David was speaking with Angelus at 9 p.m., a sudden roar erupted from the crowd: At last, smoke.
“Whoa, there we go! Looks black,” said David, turning away to look at the chimney.
The excitement was enough to make the Boones, who describe themselves as born-again Christians, feel at home in St. Peter’s Square that night.
“Everybody is so kind, and nobody’s trying to pickpocket right now,” joked Debbie. “But I think everybody is in this unified moment in time right now, which is pretty cool.”
