The United States is home to 10 of the 133 cardinals eligible to vote for the next pope. That's more than any other nation except Italy, home to 17 of the electors who will gather at the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel on Wednesday for the conclave that will choose a successor to Pope Francis.

The conclave to select the next pope has begun after Catholic cardinals from across the world filed into the Sistine Chapel Wednesday before sealing themselves inside.

Cardinals return to the Sistine Chapel on Thursday to resume voting for a new pope after the first conclave ballot failed to find a winner, sending billowing black smoke through the chapel chimney. Some of the 133 voting cardinals had said they expected a short conclave to replace Pope Francis.