Cardinals fail to elect pope at first attempt

VATICAN CITY - Roman Catholic Cardinals began a secret conclave on Monday in the splendour of the Sistine Chapel but failed in a initial vote to find a successor to Pope John Paul.

Some 2-1/2 hours after the cardinals locked themselves away from the world inside the frescoed chapel, billows of thick, black smoke poured out of the building's chimney at about 5am NZT, indicating that the required majority had not been reached.

Crowds of expectant Italians and tourists who had waited for hours in St. Peter's Square cheered when they saw the smoke signal the end of the first day of the first conclave of the third millennium.

There was a moment of uncertainty as the first grey puffs left it unclear whether the smoke was intended to be black or white -- which would have meant a pope had been chosen. But it quickly turned a dense black.

The 115 cardinal electors from 52 countries had filed into the Sistine Chapel after hearing a leading contender urge them to choose a man with the courage to defend the traditional doctrines upheld by John Paul.

Under the terms of Church law dating back centuries, the cardinals will vote up to four times a day, twice in the morning and twice in the afternoon, until a pope is selected.

Whoever eventually emerges from the conclave as leader of the 1.1 billion-member Church will have to fill the vacuum left by the death of the Polish Pontiff, whose 26-year papacy was one of the most dynamic in history, but also divisive.

Accompanied by a choir chanting Latin prayers, the red-robed "princes of the Church" walked in procession into the Sistine chapel, where Michelangelo's fresco of the Last Judgment will stare down on their deliberations.

One by one, the cardinals placed their right hand on a book of the gospels laid in the middle of the chapel, swearing an oath of secrecy and fidelity to the Church.

Just hours before the conclave opened, Joseph Ratzinger, the Vatican's doctrinal watchdog for 23 years, warned fellow cardinals that they must choose a pontiff who would support traditional Church orthodoxy.

"An adult faith is not one that follows tides of trends and the latest novelties," he told a pre-conclave Mass at St. Peter's Basilica in a sermon that many Vatican watchers interpreted as a bid to promote his own candidacy.

Since John Paul's death on April 2, media and bookmakers have tipped Ratzinger, a close aide of the Polish pontiff and preacher at his funeral, as the early favourite to succeed him.

But most Vatican experts doubt that the 78-year-old German will be able to garner the two-thirds majority needed to become pope, leaving the field wide open.

Of the eight 20th century conclaves, none took longer than five days, and two were completed on the second day.

Most Vatican experts expect a relatively quick conclave this time around, predicting that white smoke will rise above the Sistine Chapel on Wednesday evening or Thursday.

- REUTERS