Papal conclave in Rome fails to elect new leader as police raid dents chances of frontrunner Cardinal Angelo Scola
Roman Catholic cardinals will continue to search on Wednesday for a new spiritual leader for the world's 1.2 billion baptised Catholics after black smoke poured from the chimney above the Sistine Chapel tonight, signalling they had failed to elect a new pope on the first ballot.
Shortly after 5.30pm in Rome, the papal master of ceremonies, Guido Marini, drew shut the doors of the Sistine Chapel, locking inside the "princes of the church" who are to elect a pope great enough to lead his church out of the maze of scandal and controversy into which it stumbled during the strife-torn reign of former Pope Benedict XVI, who resigned last month.
After listening to a homily by one of their number, the Maltese Augustinian, Prosper Grech, the cardinals held at least one ballot. But black smoke issuing from the chimney above the chapel two hours later showed that none of the cardinals had obtained the necessary two-thirds majority.
The cardinals now return to the Vatican's Santa Marta hotel for the night. They return to the Apostolic Palace for Mass on Wednesday morning and a new round of voting.
The 115 men who took part in the ballot had earlier filed into the chapel in two long columns as they chanted Ora pro nobis (Pray for us) in response to the names of the litany of saints and prophets. Dressed mostly in vivid scarlet, the cardinals advanced down the chapel towards Michelangelo's intimidating depiction of the Last Judgement where they bowed their heads before the altar and took their places in the stalls on either side.
The judgment the cardinals themselves will have to make in their assembly, or conclave, is among the most difficult in recent times. Benedict's abdication has robbed them of the chance that most of their predecessors had to swap opinions on a likely successor as the pope of the day advanced in age and infirmity.
According to a report in the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, one of the two frontrunners, Cardinal Angelo Scola, the archbishop of Milan, had secured the backing of up to 50 electors. But in the run-up to the conclave, several cardinals warned that an early result was unlikely because of the lack of a clear favourite.
The traditional wisdom has it that he who starts the election as the likely pope emerges a cardinal. But Scola is also handicapped by his close association with the controversial Communion and Liberation movement, and just hours before the start of the ballot there was a reminder of the scandals in which it has been entangled.
Anti-mafia investigators carried out dawn raids in Scola's diocese in an investigation into corruption linked to hospital supplies. Healthcare in Lombardy is the principal responsibility of the regional administration, which for the past 18 years has been run by Roberto Formigoni, a childhood friend of Cardinal Scola and the leading political representative of the Communion and Liberation fellowship.
Among those arrested was a local politician said to have organised expensive holidays for Formigoni that are central to an investigation into the former governor's affairs. Formigoni, who has been accused of, but not charged with, conspiracy and corruption, denies all wrongdoing.
Until recently, Scola was seen as the conservative group's most distinguished ecclesiastical spokesman but he has progressively loosened his ties to Communion and Liberation, and in early 2012 publicly rebuked the movement's leadership.
According to sources close to the cardinals' preliminary deliberations, Scola was the champion of a largely non-Italian faction that is challenging the entrenched power of the Vatican cardinals. His chief rival as the voting began was said to be the archbishop of Sao Paolo, Odilo Scherer.
The management of the Roman Curia, the central administration of the church, appeared to be foremost among the issues dividing the electors. Reports in the Italian media indicated that the final meeting of the cardinals before the Conclave witnessed a clash between the Vatican's top official, Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone, and a Brazilian cardinal, Jo o Cardinal Br z de Aviz.
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