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The Aleteia community is following the conclave from Rome. Follow updates here.

Recent events are listed by time below the live video link.

As the people in St. Peter's Square (and around the world) were oohing and ahhhing at the adorable sea gull family hopping about the Sistine Chapel chimney, white smoke arrived!!

At presumably only the 4th ballot, what many thought could be a lengthy election actually was quite fast.

We will know who is the 267th pope within an hour.

According to the schedule announced before the conclave, the cardinals are back to work for the afternoon. After lunch and a time of rest at Casa Santa Marta, they were to return to the Apostolic Palace at 4 p.m. and begin voting around 4:30 p.m.

If a pope is elected during the first ballot in the afternoon, white smoke could appear around 5:30 p.m.

Otherwise, black or white smoke will appear around 7 p.m., after a second ballot.

That would conclude Day 2 of the conclave.

At almost 10 minutes before noon, black smoke came rushing out of the famous chimney atop the Sistine Chapel. This "no pope" smoke indicates that the cardinals did not find a 2/3 majority in the presumably two votes of this morning, just as they didn't last evening. The next pope needs 89 votes.

While the smoke came later than many expected last evening -- by 90 minutes or even two hours -- this smoke was earlier. Estimates hadn't put an expected smoke time before noon.

This afternoon, the cardinal-electors will reconvene around 4 pm and begin their fourth (and if necessary, fifth) vote. That will then bring an end to day 2.

The cardinals officially begin their day with a morning Mass in the Pauline Chapel around 7:45 a.m.. After that they will begin the first vote of the morning.

If the first morning ballot results in the election of a pope, white smoke could appear at around 10:30 a.m. Otherwise, smoke — black or white — will emerge, but only after the second ballot, around noon.

If the electoral process continues, the cardinals will return to Santa Marta around 12:30 p.m. for lunch. 

They will return to the Apostolic Palace at 4 p.m. and begin voting around 4:30 p.m. If the election takes place during the first ballot in the afternoon, white smoke will appear around 5:30 p.m. Otherwise, black or white smoke will appear around 7 p.m., after a second ballot.

These times are only estimates, and based on the number of electors (133), it should probably be assumed that each vote will actually take longer, perhaps significantly longer.

The faithful in St. Peter's Square offered a collective sigh as the clearly black smoke finally emerged from the chimney atop the Sistine Chapel right at 9 p.m. Rome time.

While no one expected a successful vote tonight, it was thought the black smoke could come as early as 7:30 p.m., so the sigh was also the result of the unanticipated wait.

The cardinals, too, must have been eager to call it a night and head to their rooms in the Casa Santa Marta.

We continue with them in prayer.

At approximately 5:43 in the evening of May 7, the famous "everyone out" was proclaimed, and the doors of the Sistine Chapel were shut ... well, almost.

First, Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa was allowed in (he's over 80 so was not already in the Sistine Chapel). He will give a reflection on the task now facing the cardinals and then he and the mater of papal ceremonies will leave.

And then the cardinals will begin the first vote.

Cardinal Re prayed on the morning of May 7, at the Mass for the election of the Roman Pontiff.

“May the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, intercede with her maternal intercession, so that the Holy Spirit will enlighten the minds of the Cardinal electors and help them agree on the Pope that our time needs.”