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Cardinals meet for 2nd day of papal election

Catholic cardinal electors process into the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican on the first day of the papal conclave, March 12, 2013 How many ballots any one man did garner in Tuesday's only vote will not be known -- all voting is conducted in complete secrecy -- but for someone to be elected to lead the world's 1.5 billion Catholics, they must garner 77 of the 115 votes available. The cardinals will now vote up to four times each day until that 77-vote threshold is reached. Some of the cardinals, including New York's Timothy Dolan, expressed optimism prior to entering the conclave that it should be over within just a couple days, but others, even from the U.S., have suggested more time will be required due to there being no strong frontrunner heading into the process. CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips reports that there were serious fault lines in the College of Cardinals heading into the conclave, broadly pitting more traditionalist prelates, many of them e

There will be smoke: Papal election

Pope vote: cardinals approach the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican before the start of the conclave in 2005. This time there will be 115 cardinals casting votes twice in the morning and twice in the afternoon, trying to achieve a two thirds majority plus one  The first smoke signal from the locked‑in cardinals is due at about 6pm GMT today. I forecast black – no pope. While the cardinals are locked into their conclave, an umbrella is, perhaps surprisingly, in charge of the Catholic Church. On his coat of arms, Pope Benedict XVI sported a mitre above the cross keys. The keys stand for the authority of St Peter, whom Jesus told: “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.” Now that the Church is in the popeless condition of sede vacante, the mitre has been replaced by an umbrella (red and gold striped), the umbraculum. The umbraculum is not in use these days, but if it were it would open out, not like the curly umbrellas in a Renoir paint