By Vincent Macauley
It was a smokeless affair; no black smoke to alert the Urbi et Orbi ( the City and the world) that after three rounds of voting there was still a stalemate, as none of the candidates had received the statutory two-thirds majority.
And even, no white smoke after the forth-round, when one of the Candidates finally received the all clear. But the announcement; not the usual Habemus Papam … (We have a Pope) was greeted with the spontaneous singing of the thanksgiving hymn…’To God be the Glory’.