VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Black smoke has emerged from the Sistine Chapel this evening, showing that cardinals in conclave have not elected a new pope.

At 9pm Rome time, black smoke emerged from the chimney on the roof of the Sistine Chapel, signifying that after the first round of voting, no cardinal has gained the required two-thirds majority to be elected pope.

The cardinals began the conclave earlier Wednesday, starting with the Mass for the election of a new pope and then processing into the Sistine Chapel in the afternoon.

Once inside the famous chapel, they swore their oaths of secrecy regarding the conclave – promising not to reveal details to any non-cardinal electors under pain of excommunication.

Voting will resume tomorrow. The cardinals will conduct a maximum of two voting sessions: one in the morning with two rounds of votes, and another in the late afternoon with two rounds of votes. If a new pope is elected during any round of votes then white smoke will be released from the temporary chimney of the Sistine Chapel and the world will wait to see a new pope presented from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica.

The release of black smoke to indicate that no new pope has been elected occurs twice a day at most, at the end of each voting session.

Previous conclaves back to that which elected Pope Paul VI have taken just two days. Precedent of the recent decades thus suggests that a new pope could be elected swiftly, perhaps even on Thursday or Friday.

However, many cardinals have observed that they do not know each other, and this key aspect might lead to a slightly longer conclave than normal.

To keep track of LifeSiteNews’ full conclave coverage from Rome, find the archive here.