The Associated Press
VATICAN CITY - Black smoke has poured from the Sistine Chapel chimney, signaling that cardinals have failed to elect a pope on their first try.
The cardinals held the first day of the conclave Tuesday deeply divided over the problems of the church and who best among them could fix them following the stunning resignation of Pope Benedict XVI. The Vatican made clear it didn't expect a winner on the first ballot.
The cardinals now return to the Vatican's Santa Marta hotel for the night. They return to the Apostolic Palace for Mass Wednesday morning and a new round of voting.
Cardinals are being urged to put aside their differences for the good of the Catholic Church and the next pope.
The appeal came from Cardinal Angelo Sodano, dean of the College of Cardinals, at a Mass this morning, hours before they went behind closed doors at the Sistine Chapel.
There's some disagreement among the cardinals about the qualities they should look for in a new pope.
On Tuesday afternoon, 115 cardinals filed into the frescoed Sistine Chapel singing the Litany of Saints, a hypnotic Gregorian chant imploring the intercession of saints to help them choose a pope. They heard a meditation by an elderly Maltese cardinal, take an oath of secrecy, and then they casted their first ballots.
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