A clamor, like a cry of relief when she appeared. Place Saint-Pierre, in Rome, where the crowd had started to come together in the end of the afternoon, Wednesday, May 7, to watch for the fireplace over the Sistine Chapel, the faithful and the curious began to despair when they ended up seeing the famous black smoke at 9 p.m., when it was rather expected for 7 p.m. A thin black net barely visible on the already very dark sky of this spring evening.
They had come in large numbers, tourists, Roman families with children or priests, religious or religious in a moment of conviviality specific to the people of Rome. Some had the hope of seeing, from the first evening of the conclave of the cardinals intended to elect the successor of Pope Francis, a white smoke, a sign of the election of the new head of the Catholic Church. Tired, Joanne Harwell, 76, from South Carolina (United States), ended up throwing in the towel, disappointed. “We are leaving tomorrow, so tonight was our only chance to see smoke that I had a little hope that it is white”she explains. The elegant lady of the south, all dressed in white, will not have seen anything.
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