How many votes did pope francis get

O'Connell reveals that until Mar. However, the veteran Vatican specialist explained that during the general congregations, the meetings of the entire College of Cardinals before the conclave, "an anti-Italian sentiment seemed to have begun to arise among some foreign cardinals who realized that almost all the actors involved in the Vatileaks scandal were Italian. Do we need another theologian pope? A secret dinner that Cardinal Attilio Nicora, who led the anti-Scola group, held at his home just before the conclave with 15 or more Latin American, European and Asian cardinals whom he persuaded to support Bergoglio was of vital importance for the election of the Argentine archbishop, he said.

Already inside the Sistine Chapel, in total isolation as O'Connell has been able to reconstruct, the result of the first vote of the conclave was 30 votes for Scola, Ratzinger's favorite: far from the 40 that many expected. They discuss the needs and the challenges facing the Catholic Church globally. They will also prepare for the upcoming papal election, called a conclave. Decisions that only the pope can make, such as appointing a bishop or convening the Synod of Bishops, must wait till after the election.

In the past, they made arrangements for the funeral and burial of the deceased pope. Four rounds of balloting are taken every day until a candidate receives two-thirds of the vote. In the past, 15 to 20 days after a papal vacancy, the cardinals gathered in St. Peter's Basilica for a Mass invoking the guidance of the Holy Spirit in electing a new pope. After the death of a pope, there is a 15 day period to celebrate the funeral Mass and burial of the pope, as well as a period of mourning.

Since Benedict XVI has not died, this period of mourning will not take place. The death of a pope has been the usual time for the election of a new pontiff. The Cardinal Camerlengo takes possession of the Ring of the Fisherman, the symbol of papal authority. Then the ring and the papal seal are destroyed before the College of Cardinals.

Only cardinals under the age of 80 can be electors in the conclave. There will be eligible cardinals in the conclave. On the morning designated for the beginning of the conclave, the cardinal electors will celebrate the Eucharist in St.

Upon arriving in the Sistine Chapel, the cardinals will take an oath to defend the liberty of the Holy See, to keep all the proceedings secret, and to ignore any instructions they might have received from secular authorities on how to vote. The cardinals will have to give up their cell phones and any other electronic devices.

The Sistine Chapel will probably be swept, as it was in , to discover if there are any electronic listening devices. While no devices were found in , there have been instances in the past when reporters disguised as attendants to the cardinals were found in the chapel. On the first afternoon of the conclave, the first ballot may be held. There can be as many as four ballots on each day following.

Before voting on each ballot, the cardinals take an oath to follow the rules of the conclave. When the names on all the ballots had been read out, a knot was fastened at each end of the thread and the joined ballots were set aside.

This was followed by the third and last phase of the voting process, which began with adding up the votes each individual had received. The results held several big surprises. Before the conclave, several cardinals had predicted that there would be a wide spread on the first ballot, but few had imagined how wide: 23 prelates received at least one vote.

Before the conclave, several cardinals had predicted that there would be a wide spread on the first ballot, but few had imagined how wide: 23 prelates received at least one vote on the first ballot; this meant that one out of every five cardinals present got at least one vote, with four cardinals getting 10 or more votes. The top five vote-getters in the first round were as follows:. Angelo Scola came first with 30 votes, but he did not receive as many votes as had been predicted by some cardinals and the Italian media.

The big surprise was Jorge Bergoglio, who came in at second place, close behind Scola, with 26 votes. It was a most promising start for the archbishop of Buenos Aires. Marc Ouellet scored well, too, better than expected, and arrived in third place, having obtained 22 votes. He seemed a strong candidate. On the other hand, Odilo Pedro Scherer, the much-touted Brazilian, had a surprisingly low score; he got a mere four votes.

The voting process ended with the burning of the ballots. After a final check of the report sheets on which the scrutineers had recorded the votes, the ballot sheets and the reports were taken to one of the two specially installed stoves at the back left-hand side of the Sistine Chapel as one faces the altar.

The origin of the stove goes back to the 18th century, when the master of ceremonies came up with the brilliant idea of communicating to the world whether or not a new pope has been elected by discharging white or black smoke from the chapel chimney as the ballot sheets and records are burned. Following the norms for the election process, the ballots from the first vote at this conclave were burned in the older stove, which has been used at every conclave since This was done by one of the scrutineers, with the assistance of the secretary of the conclave, Archbishop Lorenzo Baldisseri, who had been re-admitted after the votes had been counted.

As they began the burning, they activated an electronic smoke-producing device in the newer stove, first used at the conclave, which contained a cartridge containing five types of chemical mixtures that can produce black or white smoke as required. As per the rulebook, the burning and smoke-signal operation had to be completed before the cardinals left the Sistine Chapel. The ballot sheets were burned, the electronic smoke producing device was activated, and at p.

Rome time , black smoke streamed forth from the slender rust-colored chimney of the Sistine Chapel. Given that no candidate had gained the two-thirds majority on the first vote, the ballot sheets were burned, the electronic smoke producing device was activated, and at p.

Rome time , black smoke streamed forth from the slender rust-colored chimney of the Sistine Chapel, announcing to the world that no pope had been elected. The sight of the black smoke provoked an audible Nooooo from the thousands of faithful and tourists huddled in the cold under multi-colored umbrellas in St.

They stood there, constantly shifting their gaze from the small chimney to the maxi-screens in St. To an outsider, that scattered first vote might have given the impression of great uncertainty, but the electors saw it in a very different light.

God was there right through. The vote revealed several things. It showed that Scola was the only strong European candidate in line to succeed Benedict, and while this pastor and eminent theologian had support, it was at the lower end of what had been expected on the eve of the conclave, when cardinals and much of the Italian press had anticipated that he would be out in front with around 40 votes.

Naturally, this came as a disappointment to his supporters. More important, the vote confirmed what many already knew or suspected: the 28 Italian electors were deeply divided about Scola. Indeed, as the history of the last two conclaves October and April showed, when the Italians are divided, an Italian will not be elected. Was history about to repeat itself? That first ballot seemed to indicate to many electors that the next pope would not be European; he would come from the Americas.

It also left little doubt that Scherer was out of the race; he was seen as the candidate of the status quo in a conclave that was looking for radical change.