The smoke meant that the 133 cardinals in the conclave had not given one candidate at least 89 votes, the two-thirds necessary for the election of a pope.

It is not just people who flock to St. Peter’s Square to watch the chimney atop the Sistine Chapel; some furry, faithful companions have also been waiting it out.

While Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle is topping the list of “papabili” in the world press, it’s another Filipino that would please advocates and victims of clerical sexual abuse. His name is Cardinal Pablo Virgilio Siongco David of Kalookan.

Across the Archdiocese of Baltimore, a renewed call to missionary discipleship is taking root. It is most recently outlined in “A Light Brightly Visible 3.0,” a pastoral letter released Ash Wednesday by Archbishop William E. Lori, and was the foundation of the archdiocese’s Seek the City to Come pastoral planning initiative that merged 61 Baltimore-area parishes into 30 worship sites.

The 133 cardinals who entered the conclave failed to reach a two-thirds supermajority of at least 89 votes to elect a new pope during their morning session May 8.