A new pope has been elected; White smoke pours from Sistine Chapel chimney

BREAKINGBREAKING,

White smoke has emerged out of the Sistine Chapel chimney, signalling that a new pope has been elected.

Bells rang out Thursday evening from St Peter’s Basilica after cardinals elected the 267th pope to lead the Catholic Church on the second day of their conclave.

The smoke signal means the winner secured at least 89 of the votes from the 133 cardinals participating in the conclave to elect a successor to Pope Francis.

The name of the new church leader will be announced later, when a top cardinal utters the words “Habemus papam!” – Latin for “We have a pope!” – from the loggia or roofed area of the basilica. The cardinal then reads the winner’s birth name in Latin and reveals the name he has chosen to be called.

The new pope is then expected to make his first public appearance and impart a blessing from the same loggia.

Filipino Luis Antonio Tagle, Italian Pietro Parolin and Ghanian Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson are among the cardinals who are considered frontrunners.

Hoda Abdel-Hamid, reporting for Al Jazeera from Vatican City, said: “It certainly comes as a surprise that the choice came so quickly. Is it a compromise figure? Did the conservative win? Or did the church decide to stay on the progressive path? All these questions are still up there for us outside the Vatican, but those inside have already answered that question.”

“The excitement level is like that of a World Cup final,” she noted.

Priests made the sign of the cross and nuns wept as the crowd shouted “Viva il papa!” (“Long live the pope!”) after the white smoke wafted into the late afternoon sky at 6:07pm (16:07 GMT).

There had been a moment of hesitation in the vast crowd. “Is it white!?” one of the tens of thousands of people in St Peter’s Square asked. “It is!!” another said, shouting with joy.

The crowd erupted in jubilation after waiting for hours to see the colour of the smoke coming out of the Sistine Chapel’s chimney.