Argentine cardinal named new pope
Posted March 13, 2013 11:21 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VATICAN CITY (NEWS1130) – The Catholic church has chosen a new pope.
Jorge Mario Bergoglio is taking the name Pope Francis. He becomes the 266th pope and was elected on the fifth ballot.
White smoke could be seen billowing from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel shortly before 11:15 PST.
Latin Americans are reacting with joy to news of the first pope from the hemisphere.
Near the cathedral in Argentina’s capital, Martha Ruiz burst into tears of emotion at news that her cardinal Mario Bergoglio has been named pope.
She says the news “is incredible.”
At the St. Francis of Assisi church in the colonial Old San Juan district in Puerto Rico, church secretary Antonia Veloz exchanged jubilant high-fives with the priest.
The conclave was called after Pope Benedict XVI resigned last month, throwing the church into turmoil and exposing deep divisions among cardinals tasked with finding a manager to clean up a corrupt Vatican bureaucracy as well as a pastor who can revive Catholicism in a time of growing secularism.
