2100 UTC
With its usual quickness, Wikipedia has an
entry for Pope Francis.
2038 UTC
The New York Times created a
graphic showing how the population of the world's Catholics has shifted south in the last 110 years.
2014 UTC
Watch Pope Francis's first address to the world:
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
2008 UTC
Cardinal Bergoglio is the first
Jesuit to become pope. His choice of Francis is likely a nod to
St. Francis of Assisi.
1945 UTC
The first tweet from the Pope's official Twitter account, which was put into hibernation after Pope Benedict XVI abdicated.
1935 UTC
Habemus papam? For those not fluent in Latin, here's an
interesting article from Slate's coverage of the 2005 conclave about the words used to announce the election of a new pope.
19:23 UTC Pope Francis meets crowds in St. Peter's Square.
19:15 UTC Jorge Bergoglio from Argentina is the new pope.
19:10 UTC Crowds are in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican waiting for the appearance of the new pope.
18:32 UTC Cardinals have chosen a new pope, but a name has not yet been released. Just moments ago white smoke emerged from a chimney atop the Sistine Chapel and bells pealed in Vatican City Wednesday evening, signaling the selection of a new pontiff to lead the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics.
1630 UTC
This seagull, sitting atop the chimney on the Sistene Chapel, is clearly looking for attention.
1525 UTC
As Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony sits in the conclave choosing the next pope, his archdiocese
has reached a $10 million settlement with victims of a child-molesting priest that he protected
1515 UTC
The Guardian's live cam on the Sistene Chapel chimney seems to be back, so you can watch for the telltale smoke. The soonest we can expect smoke would be around 12:30 EDT (1630 UTC). However, if a pope has not been chosen at that time we probably won't see anything until around 2 p.m. EDT (1800 UTC).
1446 UTC
Fresh off his recent trip to North korea, former NBA player Dennis Rodman
is in Rome, apparently campaigning for
Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana to be elected the next Pope.
Rodman might not realize that the Cardinals are shut off from the outside world during the conclave and thus won't see his electioneering, but at least he's providing photo-ops for some of the media covering the conclave.
1342 UTC
1300 UTC
The Vatican press conference provided two interesting peeks into how the conclave works:
1226 UTC
What would you do if you were the pope? That's the question the Washington Post
asked several clergy and laypeople.
1206 UTC
Watch the Vatican press conference live:
1104 UTC
Italian press sees conclave through lens of ... what else? ... soccer. They're guessing it's a contest of Italy vs. Brazil -
http://bit.ly/Zk35ZJ
1040 UTC
Black smoke rises from Sistine Chapel
1026 UTC
Join the hundreds in Saint Peter's Square staring at the Sistine Chapel chimney with The Vatican's livestream.
Update - The Vatican livestream seems to have gone away, so here's the link to
CNN's feed.
1010 UTC
Don't want to leave the decision up to the College of Cardinals? Pick your own pope with
The Guardian's Pontifficator.
0703 UTC
The New York Times Five Thirty Eight Blog, famous for the accuracy with which it
predicted the outcome of the 2012 U.S. presidential election, takes a look at how oddsmakers are
handicapping the papal conclave.
Cardinal Angelo Scola, the archbishop of Milan is apparently favored, followed by Brazilian
Cardinal Odilo Pedro Scherer.
The blog points out though that since there's no polling of the cardinals choosing the next leader of the Catholic Church, oddsmakers are left " left to piece together fragments of information, much of it of dubious quality" when making their choices.
0640 UTC
CNN has a nice rundown of what the
daily schedule for the conclave looks like.
0620 UTC
The first vote of the day is expected to begin in the Sistine Chapel at 0830 UTC.
0600 UTC
Welcome to day two of the Papal Conclave.
Click here to read our live updates from day one, or
here for our wrap up of the days events in Vatican City.