The 133 cardinals decided May 8 after less than a day of voting on a new pope to lead the Catholic Church.

As Catholics came together at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles to pray for the cardinal electors at the conclave, Archbishop José H. Gomez urged the faithful to also “ask for a new and deeper awareness of the important part that each one of us plays in the church.”

The smoke meant that the 133 cardinals in the conclave had not given one candidate at least 89 votes, the two-thirds necessary for the election of a pope.

It is not just people who flock to St. Peter’s Square to watch the chimney atop the Sistine Chapel; some furry, faithful companions have also been waiting it out.

While Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle is topping the list of “papabili” in the world press, it’s another Filipino that would please advocates and victims of clerical sexual abuse. His name is Cardinal Pablo Virgilio Siongco David of Kalookan.

The 133 cardinals who entered the conclave failed to reach a two-thirds supermajority of at least 89 votes to elect a new pope during their morning session May 8.

Anticipation and excitement were in the air in St. Peter’s Square and the surrounding environs as thousands of faithful and curiosity seekers alike gazed for hours at a small chimney atop the Sistine Chapel.

The Justice Department said May 5 it opened a civil rights investigation into the development and passage of legislation in Washington state that requires clergy to report child abuse or neglect but provides no exceptions for clergy-penitent privilege.

The Department of Health and Human Services recently released what it called a “comprehensive review” of medical or surgical gender reassignment procedures for minors who identify as transgender, calling for broader use of psychotherapy for young people with gender dysphoria rather than what proponents call gender-affirming care.

The U.S. Supreme Court said May 6 the Trump administration may enforce, for now, a ban on transgender troops serving in the military that had been blocked by lower courts.