The secret gathering of cardinals tasked to elect the next leader of the Catholic church has sent up black smoke out of the chimney atop the Sistine Chapel, signaling that no pope has been chosen.
On Tuesday afternoon, 115 cardinal electors entered the Vatican's Sistine Chapel to start their deliberations.
The cardinals have returned to the Vatican hotel for the night and will resume voting on Wednesday morning.
Earlier, the cardinals walked in two files from the Pauline Chapel to the Sistine as the choir sang a Gregorian chant imploring the intercession of the saints to guide their voting, before the master of liturgical ceremonies intoned "Extra omnes'' or "all out" and closed the heavy wooden doors.
Before the doors of the Sistine were shut, all the cardinals below the age of 80, when the papal seat was declared vacant on February 28, made an oath of secrecy in Latin before the voting started.
The cardinals will now vote four times daily until two-thirds can agree on a candidate. If after 33 or 34 ballots no pope is elected, the two candidates with the highest votes will go into a runoff in which only a simple majority is required.
Read more: First vote to elect new pope is inconclusive - Europe - Al Jazeera English
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