Black smoke rising from the Sistine Chapel chimney on Wednesday and again Thursday morning indicated that a new pope had not been chosen to replace Pope Francis on the first ballot.Using smoke to communicate to the public whether a new pope has been elected is somewhat a recent tradition for the Catholic Church.

While younger cardinals are busy choosing the new pope, older cardinals are mostly waiting it out like the rest of us (cardinals over age 80 are not allowed to vote). But many have attended meetings with the other, voting cardinals over the past two weeks, so they have thoughts about the next pontiff.