“Where is the chimney? What time Will the Smoking Be? It’s a Great Thing ». Dorothy, Arrived on purpose from London to get to know the new Pope, it is in fibrillation. “The Chimney” is the most famous chimney in the world, that of Sistine Chapel.
The eyes of the square and the objectives of the photographers are all focused there. At 9 pm the smoke arrives. Black, indeed very black, as predicted on the eve. “It has never been seen an elected pope on the first shot”, A gentleman says with the newspapers under the arm that arrives in San Pietro after crossing the Holy Door. The weather is capricious: sun, clouds, a few drops of rain, then the sun again. “Love is the only strength capable of changing the world”, marks the dean of cardinals, Giovanni Battista Re, in the homily of mass Pro eligendo Romano pontificeconcelebrated by all the cardinals and widespread in the square through the gabilizers.
A Mexican boy kneels on the pavement. Two Sisterine repair themselves under the umbrella. “We cheer Pizzaballa,” he says, in no uncertain terms, a pair of Bergamo who arrived in Rome for the Jubilee.
Via della Conciliation is divided into lanes: one is reserved for pilgrims who arrive with the cross of the Holy Year to head towards the Holy Door. Few Italians, many Latin Americans, many Asian, Filipino above all, who advance while one of them films them with the cell phone set in the selfie stick. A very social pilgrimage. Another lane is reserved for journalists and Cameramen who arrived from all over the globe and which broadcast on the burst, trying to show the fateful chimney well. The other is still reserved for pilgrims returning from the Holy Door immediately “intercepted” by reporters who ask for Totopapa.
A group comes from Paratico, a village of five thousand inhabitants in the province of Brescia and diocese of Bergamo: “The next Pope? Pizzaballa would be perfect, it could be called Giovanni XXIV ».
A group of Spanish religious, the Small nuns of the abandoned elderlyin black halo and white veil, comes from Santiago de Compostela and Zaragoza. “We would like a pope who put together the depth and doctrine of Benedict XVI and the proximity to the poor and the simplicity of Francesco”, They say, “Names? The Holy Spirit will take care of it. ”
Francesca came from Canton Ticino affixed to the conclave and the new Pope: «I like Pizzaballa. It has a look and a charisma that very remind me of John Paul II», He says,” another that seems to me to be nice is the Swedish one, Arborelius. When I saw the cardinals in procession for the mass I was moved. They have a great responsibility, I don’t want to be in their place ».
San Pietro is a caravanseraglio: Monsignori who svico, sisters who pray, pilgrims who kneel on the pavement, pilgrims who sing, A guy with some phrases of the Gospel printed on the t-shirt distributes flyers on the end of the world (“is imminent”, prophesy, “read what the apocalypse says”), journalists who labore anyone to get out of a declaration, an impression, a flicker. The hosts of Borgo Pio say that in the last two days the cardinals have thinned down until they almost disappear: “They are afraid of you journalists, ask him too many questions,” explains a waiter. Some reporters approach a guy with the Clergyman and a bouquet of turnkey. “I work in the Vatican and I am preparing the conclave,” says hehsing and shaking the keys. AND Maxi Schafroth, A Bavarian comedian and comedian, who has to do some sketches on the “Conclave fever”.
“Who knows what time comes the smoke tonight,” says a lady who, confesses, does not feel like staying late. The sun, now, is serious. The cardinals enter the procession by saving, in Latin, the litanies of the saints and the Come creator to invoke the Holy Spirit. The site Political he says that many of them have watched the film Conclave by Edward Berger. “Some looked at it in the cinema,” said a religious because they consider it “surprisingly accurate and was a useful research tool, especially at a time when many of the participants in the real conclave have little experience of the Vatican Protocols and protocols”.
In St. Peter’s Square hovers a strange euphoria, a feverish curiosity. The shadow of Pope Francis, of his style, of his way of doing and his charisma stands out between the faithful and the curious. A Pope Pastore asked the cardinals. A shepherd in continuity with Francesco ask for pilgrims.
Margot, from New York, poses for a selfie with her black dog to which she put a white tiara on her pope. So goes to San Pietro these days, where everything mixes and everything is confused. The extra omnes, with that ritual in the balance between time and eternal, reports the silence in the square. The conclave began. Bernini’s colonnade, at sunset, filled himself with people waiting. Thirty thousand, they say. Someone prays, many point the cell phone towards the chimney. The others – over one hundred thousand – scrutinize the chimney by connecting with the YouTube channel of Vatican News. On the other hand, it is the first conclave of the social era. The spatient crowd “calls” the smoke with an applause as you do at the concerts to ask for the singers of the singers on stage. There are those who have to run for dinner, who to take the metro, who to go home. At 9 pm in point, the first smoke. The chimneys snorts a very black smoke for almost 5 minutes.
The square becomes a bright smartphone tappet to immortalize the moment. From people he climbs a small roar of disappointment, rather than disapproval. St. Peter empties quickly. “We wanted to be there,” says a couple of Barese boys satisfied. The Conclave is the last offline ritual that makes us grant a break in the era of infinite scrolling on social media, Algorithms that tell us what we must see, autonarration, that they are party conferences, investigations, summit between political leaders. The mystery that wins on the (presumed) transparency of those who pretend to show everything without making it clear.
