Who Will Be The Next Pope? Black Smoke From Sistine Chapel Signals No Decision Yet

There is no winner as of yet in the running up to occupy the pope seat in the Vatican. At the end the first day of the conclave, black smoke billowed from a chimney in the Sistine Chapel on Tuesday.

The outcome was expected, since all of the 115 cardinals are theoretically candidates, and the winner must receive two-thirds of the votes -- so to say, 77. In past conclaves, the first ballot essentially served as a primary, when a number of cardinals emerged as leading contenders. Subsequent rounds made clear where the votes were going.

The smoke will be white when a pope is elected. Until then, the cardinals stay in seclusion in the Vatican's Santa Marta residence, and will return to the Sistine Chapel every day. The schedule establishes two rounds of voting in the morning, and two in the evening, as needed.

The conclave began 12 days after Benedict XVI renounced to the name -- the first in 600 years to do so. It was a tense period fraught with discussions and speculation about what type of pope was needed for a church threatened with secularism, corruption and scandal.

Many have talked about the need for a charismatic pastor. Front runners include Italian Angelo Scola, Ghanaian Peter Turkson and Honduran Oscar Rodriguez Madariaga. New York's Timothy Dolan, who is also counted among the favorites, was the last to vote today.