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The smoke bil­lowed out at 9 p.m. Wednes­day, some four hours af­ter 133 car­di­nals solemn­ly en­tered the Sis­tine Chapel, took their oaths of se­cre­cy and for­mal­ly opened the cen­turies-old rit­u­al to elect a suc­ces­sor to Pope Fran­cis to lead the 1.4 bil­lion-mem­ber church.

With no one se­cur­ing the nec­es­sary two-thirds ma­jor­i­ty, or 89 votes, the car­di­nals will re­tire for the night to the Vat­i­can res­i­dences where they are be­ing se­questered.

They re­turn to the Sis­tine Chapel on Thurs­day morn­ing.