Ten days after the funeral of Pope John Paul I, on 14 October, the doors of the Sistine Chapel were sealed and the conclave commenced. It was divided between two particularly strong candidates for the papacy: Giuseppe Siri, the conservativearchbishop of Genoa, and the liberalGiovanni Benelli, the archbishop of Florence and a close associate of John Paul I. Inside the conclave were three non-cardinals. One was Donald Wuerl who, as secretary to the frail Cardinal John Wright, 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 was absent from this conclave after having attended the first conclave of 1978, and numerically this was offset 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. But the scale of opposition to both papabili meant that neither was likely to receive the two-thirds plus one needed for election. Among the Italian contingent, Giovanni Colombo was the only viable compromise candidate, but when he started to receive votes, he announced that if elected he would decline the papacy. Cardinal Franz König, the influential and widely respected archbishop of Vienna, individually suggested to his fellow electors a compromise candidate: the Polish Cardinal Karol Józef 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, and other moderate cardinals. Wojtyła ultimately defeated Benelli 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, then took the name of John Paul II. He became the first non-Italian pope since the DutchAdrian VI, who reigned from 1522 to 1523. At 6:18 p.m. local time, 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 Latinannouncement of Wojtyła's election from the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica. John Paul II appeared on the balcony at 7:15, and while gripping the balustrade, delivered a brief speech before his first Urbi et Orbi blessing in Italian:
Cardinals ineligible to participate
The rule Paul VI established in Ingravescentem aetatem and reiterated in Romano Pontifici Eligendo limited participation in the conclave to cardinals who had yet to reach the age of 80 on the first day of the conclave. The August 1978 conclave was the first in which this rule applied and that of October 1978 the second. No cardinals reached 80 between the two conclaves of 1978. The 15 cardinals ineligible to participate in both 1978 conclaves were:
