The Rome Report - Day 5, Part II, May 7, 2025

Wednesday – May 7th – First Smoke! 

I first considered not going down to the square tonight for the first vote and smoke to come out as everyone knows that the first vote is always black smoke. But at the last second, I decided to go down and I am so glad I did. The energy was already electric in the square. There were so many thousands of people, tons of strangers, but also, I ran into dozens of different classmates, professors, seminarians from other colleges, etc.

As we stood there for over an hour waiting for a little bit of smoke to come out, I was struck by the poetic drama of the whole setting. In an age of instant communication and news through social media, here were thousands of people waiting hours for smoke signals from a tiny chimney. It was really cool to be there. 

I arrived around 7:30 p.m., and people were expecting the smoke to come out at around 8 o’clock or so. However, 8 p.m. came and went, 8:15 came and went, and people started to get a little antsy. The suspense was really beautiful — the whole world was waiting and wondering why this was taking so long. And, unlike every other moment in our modern technological lives, we could not just Google an answer or look to X. Instead, we had to just wait and be there as a community. Many interesting conversations were had with strangers and friends I encountered in the square. It was retreat-like; we all had permission to wait and do nothing but be together. It was quite a beautiful icon of the Church. 

One “inside scoop” that we as seminarians were a bit privy to, and appeased any of our nerves for how long the smoke was taking, was knowing the typical length of the sermons from Cardinal Cantalamessa. He is the former full-time Papal preacher, an amazing preacher, but known to be a bit loquacious in his sermons. Between there being 13 more Cardinals than normal in the conclave, the likely long exhortation from Cardinal Cantalamessa, and the need for them to nominate the three Cardinals to scrutinize the vote, a little late smoke made a lot of sense. 

Finally, right at 9 p.m., black smoke started to billow out of the chimney. I am not sure how everyone felt, but obviously, it was no big surprise. I, for one, after having such a paraliturgical familial festival of sorts with so many people in the square, was relieved. The black smoke meant that I had permission to come back again and partake of the same kind of unique communion tomorrow. Until then!