“I’ve tired a lot But I was convinced that they would have chosen“, He recognizes Efe among the Stefania crowd, a Roman who had been waiting for a good news for more than three hours.
The Plaza de San Pedro del Vaticano and its surroundings They crowded this afternoon with about 30,000 people who did not take their gaze from the little fireplace placed At the top of the Sistine Chapel, expanded on the screens at the foot of the basilica.
Inside that chapel, with the final judgment of Miguel Ángel and the paintings of other teachers in history as the only witnesses, 133 cardinals around the world gathered, isolated from the outside world, to choose a new leader of the Catholic Church.
The tradition sends that the result of its scrutiny is announced to the planet and Christianity with the smoke of its burned votes in a stove and emanating from a chimney in its heights: The White Smoking indicates that there is potato; La Negra, who has not agreed.
The Sistine Chapel closed its doors at 17.46 local time (15.46 GMT) but the result of the first vote It was not known until 21.00 (19.00 GMT). And it was, how it was predicted, black.
The wait in San Pedro became long. Warm and sunny for almost all day the day, What encouraged many to do time with a ‘spritz’ or another soda in hand; But quite fresh after the afternoon, as is normal in the always unpredictable Roman spring.
“It has been a bit boring to look at the fireplace for so long. I do not hurt my eyes but my feet, although it was worth it because it is historical, ”says Juan, a Bonaerense on Roman holidays who endured the cobblestone of the Vatican square for three hours.
However, this Argentine Catholic tomorrow will return to San Pedro. He wants, he acknowledges, a new pontiff who follows the steps like Pope Francis and who recognizes and respects “the minorities of love.”
Shortly before the chimney confirmed the disagreement, many people began to leave the square, paying forward and decreased, increased upon receiving In their phones rumors that the cardinals They had decided to go to dinner and not vote.
In the end, the smoking arrived, frightening the occasional seagull that fluttered throughout the afternoon at the heights of the Sistinelike sucking camera. And, at that time, many unbelievats returned quickly to the square to capture the moment with their cameras or their eyes.