ROME – Cardinals closed in the Sistine Chapel to elect the new pope cast their first ballot Wednesday while a massive crowd gathered outside of St. Peter’s Basilica to watch the first smoke, which came unusually late.

The conclave was officially inaugurated Wednesday, May 7, with a Mass pro eligendo Romano Pontifice, or “for electing the new pope,” in St. Peter’s Basilica.

Cardinals then had a break for lunch and rest before making a formal procession from the Vatican’s Pauline Chapel into the Sistine Chapel, where they swore a collective and individual oath of secrecy.

An extra omnes command was then given ordering all of the “extras”, or those present but not voting in the conclave, to leave, and the doors of the Sistine Chapel were closed, signaling the official start of the conclave.

While the voting sessions usually last around an hour and a half to two hours, Wednesday’s first session was unusually long, with the chapel doors closing around 6p.m. local time, and the smoke not emerging from the chimney until 9:30, keeping the tens of thousands gathered below to see the smoke waiting.

There were likely many reasons for the delay, including the fact that before voting began, former papal preacher Italian Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa, 90, gave a reflection to cardinals that lasted around 45 minutes.

Afterward, there was presumably an explanation of the voting process for cardinals unfamiliar with the process, and potentially in different languages.

Once the vote began, each of the 133 cardinals went up to place their slip of paper containing the name of their candidate into an urn set up in front of Michaelangelo’s Last Judgement. Votes then had to be counted and recounted to verify the numbers.

For a conclave with more electors than the previous conclaves of 2005 and 2013, 80 percent of whom were named by Pope Francis and thus have never participated in a conclave, the delay was unusual, but not concerning.

Many cardinals appointed by Pope Francis also come from remote and faraway countries and do not know Italian, the official working language of the Holy See, meaning it might have taken longer to explain the process.

Meanwhile, the streets outside of the Vatican were packed with faithful, tourists and mere spectators hoping to see the first “smoke” of the conclave, meaning the moment white or black smoke comes pouring out of the chimney of the Sistine Chapel with the burning of the ballots for that voting session.

Black smoke, colored with sulfur to make it dark, means no pope has been elected, whereas white smoke indicates the cardinals have selected a new pope, who reached a two-thirds majority vote – in this case, 89 of the 133.

Only one voting session was held Wednesday, however, from Thursday on there will be four voting sessions a day, two in the morning and two in the evening, until a pope is elected.

While previous conclaves in 2005 and 2013 were relatively short, resulting in a pope after just two days, this one is expected to last a tad longer, as there are more cardinals voting, and thus more options and opinions about the right candidate, and many were unknown to one another prior to coming to Rome for Pope Francis’s funeral and the conclave process, meaning it could take longer to identify candidates and reach a consensus.

Some observers believe that the Dean of the College of Cardinals, Italian Giovanni Battista Re, 91, offered a show of support for Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, considered a frontrunner in the conclave, during Wednesday’s inaugural Mass, giving him a warm embrace on the altar.

Previously, Re in his homily notably did not quote any of Pope Francis’s magisterial documents, which was seen as a slight to Francis and a signal to the cardinals that he believes the next papacy ought to go in a different direction, as it is customary to quote the recently-deceased pontiff in an inaugural conclave Mass.

The perception was that institutional cardinals, those within the curia, are eager to change course after a pope who largely worked around or in spite of his system, rather than with or through it, as Francis often made decisions on his own without consultation and without giving notice to the curia.

Some cardinals, because of this, are seen as eager to backpedal on Francis’s curial reforms, and Re’s homily was interpreted as backing this approach, with Parolin as his candidate of choice.

However, with so many cardinals from around the world, including the global peripheries that Pope Francis so insistently sought to shed light on, what will happen, and what direction the next papacy will take, is anyone’s guess.

Follow Elise Ann Allen on X: @eliseannallen