Inside the conclave were three non-cardinals. One was
Donald Wuerl, secretary to the frail cardinal
John Wright, who was allowed inside the Sistine Chapel to assist him. This conclave had the same number of cardinals as the first conclave of 1978. Only Albino Luciani himself (who became Pope John Paul I) was absent from this conclave after having attended the first conclave of 1978, and this was offset numerically by the presence of Cardinal Wright at this conclave. Supporters of Benelli were confident that he would be elected. In early ballots, Benelli came within nine votes. However, the scale of opposition to both
papabili meant that neither was likely to receive the two-thirds majority for election. Among the Italian contingent, Cardinal
Giovanni Colombo, the
archbishop of Milan, was the only viable compromise candidate, but when he started to receive votes, he announced that he would decline the papacy if elected. Cardinal
Franz König, the influential and widely respected
archbishop of Vienna, individually suggested to his fellow electors a compromise candidate: the
Polish cardinal
Karol Wojtyła, whom König knew and by whom he was highly impressed. Also among those cardinals who rallied behind Wojtyła were supporters of Siri,
Stefan Wyszyński, most of the
American cardinals (led by
John Krol), and other
moderate cardinals. Wojtyła ultimately defeated Benelli (who was supposedly the candidate Wojtyła himself had voted for) on the eighth ballot on the third day with, according to the Italian press, 99 votes from the 111 participating electors. He accepted his election with these words: "With obedience in faith to Christ, my Lord, and with trust in the Mother of Christ and the Church, in spite of great difficulties, I accept." The pope, in tribute to his immediate predecessor, took the name
John Paul II. He became the first non-
Italian pope since
Adrian VI, who reigned from 1522 to 1523. At 18:19
CET (17:19
UTC), the white smoke rose from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel, announcing to the public that a new pope had been elected. The
senior cardinal deacon,
Pericle Felici, after quickly checking the correct pronunciation of the new pope's
Polish name with Cardinal
Stefan Wyszyński, gave the traditional
Latin announcement of Wojtyła's election from the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica. John Paul II appeared on the balcony at 19:15 CET, and while gripping the
balustrade, delivered a brief speech before his first
Urbi et Orbi blessing in Italian: ==See also==