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VATICAN CITY — As soon as he says "yes" to being pope, the new head of the Roman Catholic Church (search) will make his first major decision: He'll choose a new name. The new pope will be free to pick from any of his 264 predecessors, use his own first name or come up with something new. Vatican-watchers will read the choice like tea leaves offering clues to the spirit of the new papacy. "If he chooses the name Pius XIII, it is a clear signal that he didn't like Vatican II and wants to move the church backwards," said...

VATICAN CITY (AP) - Black smoke streamed from the Sistine Chapel's chimney Monday to signal that cardinals failed to select a new pope in their first round of voting, held just hours after they began their historic task: finding a leader capable of building on John Paul II's spiritual energy while keeping modern rifts from tearing deeper into the church. ``It seems white. ... No, no, it's black!'' reported Vatican Radio as the first pale wisps slipped out from the narrow pipe and then quickly darkened. As millions around the world watched on television, at least 40,000 people waited in...

The voting process has begun By John L. Allen, Jr. Rome Rather predictably, the first night of the 2005 conclave ended in puffs of black smoke. Though the cardinals are not obligated to hold a ballot on the first evening, historically it’s the pattern. The dean of the College of Cardinals, Joseph Ratzinger, was obligated to ask the cardinals if any of them had questions about the procedures to be followed under John Paul II’s document, Universi Dominici Gregis, but presumably by this point every question had been asked and answered a half-dozen times. Hence the cardinals opted to proceed...

Evangelical Protestants pray that the next pope will be in their biblical corner. First, they pray he will be the defender of babies in the womb. In being that defender, he will forcefully speak out against those who murder infants in females’ bodies. And he will state such forthrightly, in no uncertain terms, just as Pope John Paul II held such convictions. Second, evangelicals pray that the next pope will defend the culture of life by opposing euthanasia. That oft soft-pedaled issue cannot afford to be sidelined by both evangelical Protestants and the Vatican; therefore, it is prayed that the...

The College of Cardinals meets today to pick the 265th pope of the Roman Catholic Church. Because John Paul II was the first non-Italian pope in 455 years, speculation is high that church fathers may break new ground again -- perhaps by picking a non-European, an African or the first Latin American to be pope. The media constantly states that the only certainty is that this supposedly conservative college will pick a conservative pope. This prediction is unlikely because the cardinals are actually very liberal.

Few know Vatican politics better than Ray Flynn, the former U.S. ambassador to the Holy See. In an exclusive interview with NewsMax from Rome, Flynn says there will be an African or Latin American Pope someday – but the time is not now. Flynn thinks the cardinals – many of whom he knows on a first name basis – will choose Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as the new Pope. Flynn, a close friend of the late John Paul II, told NewsMax the German Ratzinger was one of the cardinals closest to the late Pontiff, has the exact qualifications the times call...

Black smoke poured from the Sistine Chapel's chimney Monday evening, signaling that the cardinals sequestered inside for the first papal conclave of the new millennium failed to elect a new pope.

Will Justin Rigali emerge as the "consensus candidate" in the College of Cardinals? Think about it: He's an Italian-American. He is a distinquished Vatican insider. He is originally from Los Angeles, the largest Hispanic diocese in North America. He was a talented Arch-Bishop in middle-America (St. Louis), and now is the Cardinal of Philadelphia.How much more qualified does a man need to be?Will Justin Rigali emerge as the "consensus candidate" in the College of Cardinals?Could the Italian bloc of Cardinals see in him a sympathetic "Italian" heritage candidate? Could the Vatican insiders see in him an experienced world diplomat? Could...

The Sunday Times - World April 17, 2005 Papal hopeful is a former Hitler Youth Justin Sparks, Munich, John Follain and Christopher Morgan, Rome THE wartime past of a leading German contender to succeed John Paul II may return to haunt him as cardinals begin voting in the Sistine Chapel tomorrow to choose a new leader for 1 billion Catholics. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, whose strong defence of Catholic orthodoxy has earned him a variety of sobriquets — including “the enforcer”, “the panzer cardinal” and “God’s rottweiler” — is expected to poll around 40 votes in the first ballot as conservatives...

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Roman Catholic cardinals started to move into sequestered lodgings Sunday ahead of a momentousconclave to elect the successor to Pope John Paul II. The 115 eligible cardinals will enter the secretive conclave in the Sistine Chapel Monday with no clear favorite to take over the reins of the 1.1 billion-member Church. Some of the red-hatted "princes of the church" held publicMasses around a rainswept Rome Sunday, refusing to speculate on the vote and underlining the spiritual nature of their quest. "People think that we are going to vote like in an election. But this is something...

CARDINAL WHO WARNED OF 'ANTICHRIST' RISES IN BETTING ODDS Though Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi is the odds-on favorite to be the next pope, global betting parlors are reporting an influx of bets on Cardinal Giacomo Biffi. "From what I can see here, there's been a lot of wagers on Biffi," Mani Sanders of Pinnacle Sports, an online gambling service based on the resort island in the Netherlands Antilles, told the Providence Journal. Cardinal Biffi, emeritus bishop of the archdiocese of Bologna, was recently listed as a 125-to-1 long shot to succeed John Paul II. But does Pinnacle know something we don't?...

Rome -- One-hundred-and-fifteen men will lock themselves into the Sistine Chapel on Monday afternoon, gaze up at the magnificent ceiling fresco of Michelangelo, and start to pray for the collective wisdom to choose the next Supreme Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church. In a matter of days, one of them will emerge as the leader of the world's 1.1 billion Catholics and, according to Catholic doctrine, the successor not only to Pope John Paul II but to Saint Peter the Apostle. "The legacy is incredible. We are at such an important point in the history of the church," said the...

ROME, April 16 - There was never doubt that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the Vatican's hard-line defender of the faith, would have a strong hand in selecting the next pope. But in the days of prayer and politics before the conclave, which begins on Monday, he has emerged as perhaps the surprise central figure: the man who could become the 265th pope, choose him or be the one other cardinals knock from the running. Any talk of who will become the next pope is guesswork, echoes from cardinals and their staffs sworn to silence about one of the world's most elite...

VATICAN CITY - The worldwide outpouring of affection for Pope John Paul II may have convinced the cardinals choosing his successor that today's Roman Catholic Church has no room for a so-called "transitional" leader. The profile of a pope who knows how to communicate and to bridge cultural and religious divides fits a number of the 115 cardinals assembling in the conclave that begins Monday. Those contenders include Brazil's Claudio Hummes, Argentina's Jorge Bergoglio and Austria's Christoph Schoenborn. Both Hummes, 70, and Bergoglio, 68, have been highly visible advocates for the poor, questioning the benefits of globalization and free-market policies....

It begins with a vow of secrecy and ends with the words: "I accept." What happens in between will never fully be known except by the 115 cardinals who will enter the Sistine Chapel tomorrow, pray for divine guidance and then shut themselves off from the world until they choose a pontiff. We should have an answer by Friday. No conclave in the past century has lasted more than five days. The 1978 election of John Paul II took eight ballots over three days. On the eve of the conclave, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany has emerged as the favorite....

<p>Never having been made a cardinal, retired Archbishop John R. Quinn of San Francisco will not be participating in the conclave that will elect a successor to Pope John Paul II. But the 76-year-old Quinn thinks that some of the electors could literally take a page from his book in choosing the next pope.</p>

Vatican City — Canada's Marc Cardinal Ouellet used his Sunday homily to rebuke Catholic political operatives who are spreading nasty rumours about his fellow cardinals in the mud-spattered papal election campaign. In his final public statement before the secret election begins Monday, Cardinal Ouellet reminded Roman Catholics that the conclave was supposed to be above the crass politics of the secular world. “The choice the cardinals are making is not a political act based on some human calculation,” Cardinal Ouellet told parishioners at the Holy Mary in Transpontina church near St. Peter's Square. “It's an act of faith, and profound...

CATHOLIC cardinals have destroyed the late Pope John Paul II's ring and seal in a symbolic end to his authority before secluding themselves from the world to elect his successor. The cardinals will begin their conclave this week, and the Vatican said smoke signals would pour from a chimney above the Sistine Chapel twice a day to tell the world whether or not a new pope had been elected. Overnight, the cardinals watched an ancient ritual marking the transition between two popes - the destruction of John Paul's Fisherman's Ring and his lead seal, two symbols of his authority. During...

ONITSHA, Nigeria -- The legend of Cardinal Francis Arinze, a contender to become the first pope from Africa in 1,500 years, stems from a moment of crisis in Nigeria's Catholic heartland. It was the early 1970s, and the government had ordered all European and American priests -- most of the Catholic leadership at the time -- out of the country. The political purge left Arinze and a handful of Nigerian priests with a massive job and few resources to do it, church leaders here said. But Arinze, the first African-born archbishop in this grubby trading center on the Niger River,...