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IT’S VERY DIFFICULT to predict when the smoke will emerge from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel, as was the case both last night and this morning.
Last night, the crowds had expected to see black smoke at around 7.30pm.
As luck would have it, the black smoke billowed last night at 9pm at the exact moment the big screens around St Peter’s Square, which had been fixed on the chimney, went blank.
And so it was that both The Journal and a former US Senator and Republican presidential candidate were taken by surprise this morning.
It’s impossible to time and when the black smoke came this morning, I was in the middle of interviewing former US Senator and current @NEWSMAX correspondent @RickSantorum. @thejournal_ie pic.twitter.com/D3IBDavnus
— Diarmuid Pepper (@Diarmuid_9) May 8, 2025
Rick Santorum represented Pennsylvania in the United States Senate from 1995 to 2007, and ran for US president in the 2012 Republican primaries, finishing second to Mitt Romney.
He’s now a correspondent with Newsmax, as well as a practising Catholic.
When he was asked how it felt to cover the conclave both from a personal and professional capacity, Santorum told The Journal that it is “incredibly special to be here as a Catholic and see this take place”.
He added that the “world has come together in anticipation of a new leader of the Church”.
Pope Francis had criticised US vice president JD Vance for using Catholic theology to justify his administration’s treatment of migrants.
“The Catholic Church, and the pope in particular, provides an incredibly important moral voice, one that could be very constructive in a world that’s very divided and broken,” said Santorum.
Last night the big screens went blank as the black smoke billowed, this morning, I was interviewing former US Senator and current @NEWSMAX correspondent @RickSantorum when the black smoke came from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel! @thejournal_ie pic.twitter.com/nL5jiuD8y8
— Diarmuid Pepper (@Diarmuid_9) May 8, 2025
Meanwhile, US president Donald Trump recently joked that he would like to become pope, before remarking that “we have a Cardinal that happens to be out of a place called New York who’s very good, so we’ll see what happens”.
That cardinal from New York is Timothy Dolan.
Santorum said Dolan “would be an excellent choice” and claimed that he is “not considered to be part of either camp, left or right”.
He added that Dolan would be a “very strong compromise candidate” and said that he is a “solid theologian who stands by the Church’s teaching”.
This echoed a statement from Cardinal Dolan recently, who called for the next pope to have “more clarity in teaching and refinement of the Church’s tradition”.
Many view calls for “clarity” as a call to undo some of the welcoming strides Francis made towards divorced Catholics and the LGBT community.
In 2018, Francis opened up the possibility for divorced Catholics to receive the Eucharist and in 2023, he allowed the blessing of same-sex couples in certain circumstances.
Meanwhile, Santorum remarked that Dolan is an “Irishman and has all the good sense of an Irishman”.
He also remarked that “one of the big problems the Church has is that the giving to the Vatican has dropped precipitously”.
“There are some big financial problems, and Timothy Dolan can raise money,” said Santorum.
“I know that’s obviously not at the top of the list, but the Vatican has to stay open, it has to survive and not have to sell off the things that are in the Vatican museum to survive.”
It is indeed a big concern and it is said that the proceeds from tourists visiting the Vatican Museum is what is keeping the lights on.
For example, the shortfall in the Vatican’s pension fund was estimated to total some €631 million in 2022.
The Vatican has over 4,000 staff and there are severe concerns around the Vatican’s ability to pay the pensions of lay and clerical employees.
It is also still reeling from the disastrous Sloane Avenue property deal in London.
60 Sloane Avenue is a former Harrods warehouse and the Vatican is estimated to have lost around €140 million on the deal.
In February, the High Court in England ruled that the Vatican’s Secretariat of State was deceived by Italian financier Raffaele Mincione in the purchase of the building.
Meanwhile, in the Vatican Courts, Cardinal Angelo Becciu was also sentenced to five and a half years in prison for embezzlement of public funds.
He is currently appealing that ruling and claimed that during the appeal period, he could vote in the current conclave.
He had been stripped of his Cardinal privileges by the late Francis and on the eve of the conclave, he was presented by two letters from Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who was secretary of state under Francis.
They were signed by Francis and confirmed Becciu could not take part in the conclave.
Earlier this year, Francis had created a Vatican taskforce to encourage donations from lay Catholics “and other potential benefactors” to aid the asset-rich but cash-poor Vatican.
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