Pope Francis I already has a Wikipedia page…

Can you believe it!?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_francis

Here is the coverage from white smoke through to the end of the Pope’s address. The white smoke is in the first minute. Once you have seen some of the coverage of the crowds, you may wish to skip through to the Habemus Papam announcement at 1 hour and 7 minutes. Pope Francis’ first appearance and address starts at 1 hour and 16 minutes.

Blessed be God for the gift of this humble, prayerful shepherd. The world is grateful for his generous “yes”, that he would wear the shoes of the Fisherman, that he would serve the Lord by becoming father of the faithful. Pope Francis, we pray for you as you have asked us to do. May you always cling to the Cross of our Saviour. May He be with you always.

Habemus Papam!! Standing by to see who it is!

Blessed be God in all His gifts!!

All eyes around the world glued to the loggia…

UPDATE: Go here to see the coverage of this historic event from the white smoke all the way through to the end of Pope Francis’ first appearance on the balcony!

black smoke, white smoke… holy smoke!

Vatican news is reporting that there will be two smoke signals on each day of the conclave until a new Pontiff is elected. These are scheduled for around noon and 7pm Rome time. That means That in my little corner of the Earth, TV sets or laptops should be checked at 10pm AEDT and 5am AEDT each day, if there is to be any chance of seeing the announcement live.

10pm? Easy.

5am? I haven’t risen at that hour since I left the Motherhouse! A little help may be required here… Enter: Aussie Pope Alarm! Some genius employed by the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference has built a system that sends a text message straight to your mobile phone if the white smoke appears. Thank you, ACBC!

Of course, the times above assume that both ballots in each morning and each afternoon session are allowed to proceed owing to the first of the two in each session being unsuccessful. If a successful election occurs on a FIRST ballot, the signals will appear at either 8.30pm AEDT or 3.30am AEDT.

So for now? It’s time to watch and pray…

concerning the mechanics of a conclave…

This is fascinating! A blog that I follow that concentrates on all things Canon Law-related reveals that Pope Paul VI explored the possibility of altering the papal election procedures as we know them… Check it out!

Paul VI's interesting idea.

Sure hope I can track down a copy of the source he cited… He’s got me intrigued now!