A PUFF of black smoke above the roof of the Sistine Chapel last night signalled that the 115 cardinals of the conclave had failed to elect a successor to Pope John Paul II on their first ballot.

A throng of 50,000 had gathered in St Peter’s Square to await the result of the cardinals’ efforts to choose a new leader for the world’s 1.1 billion Catholics. The conclave — which could last days or even weeks — had opened to the echo of a stern injunction from its chairman, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, to elect a pontiff who would defend doctrinal orthodoxy and not be swayed by “fashionable” modern thinking.

His words came at a mass for the cardinals eligible to vote — those under 80 — and to the public in St Peter’s Basilica.

Seated in a semi-circle before the high altar, the cardinals formed a sea of red, contrasting with the purple robes of the bishops and archbishops, the black habits of nuns and the white surplices of the priests who administered Communion to the congregation.

As they processed out the congregation applauded, most warmly for Cardinal Camillo Ruini, 74, the Vicar of Rome, seen as a conservative “kingmaker” who is likely to be a key figure guiding the decision, and Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, 78, the former Archbishop of Milan, a rallying point for the liberal or “progressive” wing.

Some cardinals, including Oscar Rodríguez Maradiaga of Honduras, 62, and Claudio Hummes of Brazil, 70 — front runners to be the first Latin American Pope — reached out to grasp the hands of admirers.

In the afternoon the cardinals — filmed for the first time by television cameras — walked in procession from St Peter’s to the Sistine Chapel where, under the gaze of Michelangelo’s frescoes, they took an oath of secrecy and invoked the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Then, as the doors closed at the command of Archbishop Piero Marini, the master of ceremonies, the one remaining non-voter, Cardinal Tomas Spidlik, 85, of the Czech Republic, gave a private sermon reminding the cardinals of the gravity of their task.

The chapel and St Martha’s, the cardinals’ new residence, have been swept for spying devices and the cardinals — as well as Vatican personnel and hotel staff — are forbidden to use mobile phones, computers, radios or televisions.

In his homily, Cardinal Ratzinger, 78, the leading conservative contender and the late Pope’s ideological “enforcer”, said that in recent decades the “small boat of Christian thought” had been rocked by waves of ideology “from one extreme to the other, Marxism to liberalism, collectivism to radical individualism, atheism to vague religious mysticism”. He attacked “the dictatorship of relativism” — the assumption that one set of values is as valid as another — and said that “an adult faith is not one which follows the tides of trends or the latest novelties”.

He said that to profess a “clear faith” was all too often derided as “fundamentalism” — a charge some liberal Catholics have levelled at Cardinal Ratzinger himself. There are reports that he has as many as 50 of the 77 votes needed for election. But the determination of the “progressive camp” to block him will, if anything, have been reinforced by his message.

The conclave is thus shaping up as a replay of October 1978, when conservative-liberal deadlock produced an unexpected compromise in the form of Karol Wojtyla, Archbishop of Krakow. The agenda facing the new Pope this time includes challenges from Islam and global poverty to bioethics, Aids and Western secularism.

Cardinal Ennio Antonelli, 68, the Archbishop of Florence, said: “The Lord has already decided who the Pope is to be . . . all we have to do is to pray to understand who it is”.

Cardinal Francis Arinze of Nigeria, 72, tipped as possibly the first modern African Pope, said: “God has no doubt about the new Pope, it is we who have the doubts.” The Church needed a Pope who was “both preacher and pastor”.

References to a “pastor” are seen as aimed at Cardinal Ratzinger, who for two decades has been at the heart of Vatican bureaucracy. However, he too called on God yesterday “to give us a new pastor after the great gift of John Paul II”.

The cardinals will assemble in the Sistine Chapel and vote twice in the morning and twice in the afternoon. If no winner emerges after 30 ballots, the conclave switches to a straight majority system.

The newly-elected Pope spends some moments alone in meditation in the “Room of Tears”, where he dons his new white papal robes, before making his first public appearance — 40 minutes after being chosen — on the central balcony of St Peter’s Basilica.

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