Cardinals swore an oath of
secrecy and locked themselves inside the Sistine Chapel on Tuesday, starting a conclave that they hope will elect a new pope who can heal divisions inside Roman Catholicism's hierarchy while tending to its 1.2
billion faithful.
枢机主教们周二进行了保密宣誓，并把自己反锁在西斯廷教堂(Sistine Chapel)内，开始举行教皇选举秘密会议。他们希望选出一位既能弥合罗马天主教等级制度内的分歧又能管理12亿信众的新教皇。
The
procession of cardinals into the
chapel capped a day of carefully scripted events designed to showcase unity among the princes of the church as well as their continuity with centuries of tradition. But the rituals came against a backdrop of stark divisions over what kind of leader Catholicism needs to guide it in its 21st century.
周二这天举行了一系列经过精心谋划的活动，旨在展示罗马天主教领导人的团结一致以及教会数百年传统的延续。枢机主教列队进入西斯廷教堂的画面为这一天画上了句号。不过，眼下的问题是，人们对于21世纪的天主教需要什么样的领导人来引导一事有明显分歧。
In the evening, black smoke rose from the chapel, signaling that cardinals didn't reach the two-thirds majority needed to choose a new pope in their first vote. The voting was set to continue on Wednesday morning.
In recent weeks, cardinals from around the world have
publicly vented grievances over the opaque governance of the Roman Curia, the Vatican's scandal-plagued
administrative body, pitting themselves against a coterie of colleagues who are longtime Vatican insiders.