The audience responded to the remarks of Tettamanzi, a rival candidate for pope, with silence.

Rival candidate Mark Leno, who would have been the city’s first gay mayor, conceded the knife-edge race on Wednesday.

Rival candidate Mark Leno, who would have been the city's first gay mayor, conceded the knife-edge race on Wednesday.

The commissioner also criticised a plan by rival candidate Ted Cruz to conduct surveillance on Muslim neighbourhoods.

The rival candidate, John Rawlinson, was chaplain to Lord Ellesmere, both Chancellor of the university and Lord Chancellor of England.