More Black Smoke At Vatican

The crowd in St. Peter's Square, and around the world, is going to have to keep waiting. A second batch of black smoke was released into the air Tuesday morning, signaling that the latest voting by cardinals did not elect a pope.

Tuesday is day two of the College of Cardinals voting on who should be the successor to John Paul II. Tuesday afternoon, the 115 cardinals are likely to hold as many as two more rounds of ballots.

All eyes have been focused on a stovepipe chimney on the roof of the Sistine Chapel, where a crowd waits for signals from the papal conclave: white smoke symbolizing the election of a new pope, and black smoke symbolizing ballots which have not produced a pope.

Some 40,000 people packed St. Peter's Square to stare at the chimney, waiting for the smoke from the cardinals' burned paper ballots.

On Monday, most found it hard to tell - at first - whether the long awaited smoke was black or white.

What ultimately turned out to be a long trail of black smoke was preceded by a puff of light smoke that sent a cheer through the crowd and caused some Italian news agencies to declare that a new pope had been chosen.

"We kind of had a heart-stopping moment when we thought we saw white, and then, we saw black," says Father Paul Schmidt of Oakland, Calif., who is in Rome covering the election for "The Catholic Voice."

The cardinals' voting procedure is steeped in tradition. Each cardinal receives rectangular cards with the Latin words for "I elect as supreme pontiff" written across the top. Each cardinal writes in a name, trying to disguise his handwriting as much as possible, and then folds the ballot in half, takes it to the altar and puts it in a chalice next to Michelangelo's painting of "The Last Judgment."

As the cardinals began deliberating behind the locked doors of the Sistine Chapel, some thought German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger might be the frontrunner. Others said Ratzinger, the Vatican's chief doctrinal watchdog, will fall short of the votes he needs to become pope.

Speaking at the Mass that began the conclave, Ratzinger described the kind of person he believes should next lead the world's Roman Catholics: someone who will not allow "a dictatorship of relativism" - the ideology that there are no absolute truths - to take root.

To many, Ratziger, 78 - a cardinal for nearly 28 years and a powerful Vatican official known for his conservatism - is a polarizing figure.

"Yeah, no question," Father Tom Reese told CBS News Correspondent John Roberts. "If he was elected, it'd be quite controversial."

Because the cardinals will hold four daily rounds of voting until a candidate gets two-thirds support, or 77 votes, Reese expects a new pope will be elected within three or four days.

If one is not elected after three days, voting pauses for up to one day.

If cardinals deadlock late in the second week of voting, they can vote to change the rules so a winner can be elected with a simple majority: 58 votes.

"It reminds me so much of the political conventions that we used to have in this country before we went to the primary system to select our candidates," said CBS Evening News anchor Bob Schieffer.

"There aren't parties in the same sense that we think of political parties," said CBS News Analyst Father Paul Robichaud. "But there are groups within the college of cardinals that have very specific concerns, concerns about the third world, concerns about the value and culture of life, concerns specifically about war and peace, concerns about the role of women, concerns about abortion, birth control."

Although many Catholics, especially in the U.S., have said they would like to see changes on some of those issues, expectations are low that this will happen anytime soon.

"We're not going to have changed attitudes on homosexuals or women priests or on married priests or any of those things in which Americans or the American media are so interested in," says Father Andrew Greeley, an American priest who has frequently spoken out on Church issues and is the author of numerous best-selling novels interweaving Catholic questions and theology with tales of romance and mystery.

There could be a change, however, in what part of the world the pope is from, and in Brazil, reports CBS News Correspondent Trish Regan, many are hoping the next pope will be Cardinal Clàudio Hummes, Archbishop of São Paulo.

Hummes - a bishop for nearly 30 years but a relative newcomer to the College of Cardinals, joining their number only four years ago - is known as a fierce defender of the poor.

In and around São Paulo, residents speak fondly, though rarely openly, about the 70-year-old archbishop they call Dom Clàudio.

"He's extremely intelligent, courageous, impartial and humble," said Antonio Figueiro, 60, owner of the A Praca restaurant in front of the Nossa Senhora do Carmo Church. "I can't think of anyone more deserving to be the next pope."