VATICAN CITY
International Business Times
Analysis
By Umberto Bacchi
March 13, 2013
As black smoke billows from the Vatican for a second successive day, announcing that cardinals remain divided over who should be pope, the names of a small bunch of outsiders have begun to set tongues wagging in Saint Peter’s Square.
After three ballots, no candidate has gained the 77 votes necessary to be anointed Pontiff – and speculation about a victory for one of the outsiders continues to mount.
“The more we wait, the better chance we have of having a surprise,” said one of the worshippers who gathered in the Square to get close up to the Conclave.
Negotiations and votes take place behind the closed doors of the Sistine Chapel, and the oath of secrecy remains in force even after the Conclave adjourns for the day.
Before the start of the conclave, the favourite to succeed Benedict XVI was said to be Milan Archbishop Angelo Scola.
However as the hours without Cardinal Protodeacon Jean-Louis Tauran taking the central balcony of Saint Peter’s basilica to pronounce the famous formula “Habemus Papam (We have a Pope)”, Scola’s odds are reportedly shrinking.
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