The world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics have a new spiritual leader, and for the first time is is someone from the Americas.
As afternoon turned to evening in Vatican City on Wednesday, a little after 7 p.m. local time, white smoke rose from a chimney above the Sistine Chapel and bells rang through St. Peter's Square — the traditional signals that the church's cardinals have chosen a new pope.
A little more than an hour later, his identity was announced: 76-year-old Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, Argentina. He comes from a region of the world with 483 million Catholics — about 40 percent of all the church's faithful. A Jesuit priest, he chose the name Francis — seen by some as a sign he wants to unite the church, because Franciscans have been traditional rivals of Jesuits. No other pope has chosen that name, which as National Catholic Reporter reminds us honors "the 12th century saint known for his simple lifestyle and dedication to the works of mercy."
Now, as NPR's Sylvia Poggioli has said, the new pope and the church face a choice: "Whether to continue an inward looking conservative path or to open up to the broader world of the faithful and introduce more collegiality, as had been indicated by the reforms of the Second Vatican Council 50 years ago."
The papal selection came after five votes by the 115 cardinals eligible to cast ballots. They voted once on Tuesday, twice Wednesday morning and then twice again on Wednesday afternoon. It takes a two-thirds majority (77 in this case) to become pope.
We followed the news of the papal announcement as it happened, and then collected reports about the new pope and reactions to his selection. We've also got posts about:
There will be additional posts as the evening continues, and we'll start over again in the morning with more news about the new pope. Meanwhile, here's how the story played out after the white smoke appeared above the Vatican. Scroll down and "read up" if you want to see it in chronological order:
Update at 4:30 p.m. ET. Obama Calls New Pope "A Champion Of The Poor":
"On behalf of the American people, Michelle and I offer our warm wishes to His Holiness Pope Francis as he ascends to the Chair of Saint Peter and begins his papacy," President Obama says in a statement sent to reporters. "As a champion of the poor and the most vulnerable among us, he carries forth the message of love and compassion that has inspired the world for more than 2,000 years — that in each other we see the face of God."
The president adds that:
Update at 4:15 p.m. ET. He Was "Runner-Up" Last Time:
"Though it's hard to say how seriously one should take the specifics, the general consensus is that Bergoglio was indeed the 'runner-up' last time around," National Catholic Reporter's John Allen wrote earlier this month. "He appealed to conservatives in the College of Cardinals as a man who had held the line against liberalizing currents among the Jesuits, and to moderates as a symbol of the church's commitment to the developing world."
Allen added that:
Update at 4 p.m. ET. Choice Of Name Signals Desire For Unity.
Update at 3:55 p.m. ET. Known As "Father Jorge":
"Cardinal Bergoglio has had a growing reputation as a very spiritual man with a talent for pastoral leadership serving in a region with the largest number of the world's Catholics," reports Catholic News Service.
It adds that:
Argentina's La Nacion writes that "when he travels to Rome, he doesn't like to reveal that he is a cardinal. That's why he is frequently seen wearing a black overcoat. Also, he when he was declared a cardinal, he decided not to buy new clothing. Instead, he ordered that the clothing of the previous cardinal be mended to fit him."
Update at 3:26 p.m. ET. Thanks And The Lord's Prayer:
From a balcony above St. Peter's Square, Pope Francis I's first words to the world's Catholics expressed some surprise. He said the cardinals have "chosen one from far away, but here I am."
He thanked all those who support him, and then led those in St. Peter's Square in prayers: the "Our Father" and a "Hail Mary."
Update at 3:23 p.m. ET. Pope Has Chosen To Be Called "Francis":
The Vatican's communications office just tweeted that the new pope will be "Francesco I." The Vatican's English-language Twitter feed calls him "Pope Francis."
Update at 3:20 p.m. ET. A Jesuit.
When NPR was profiling potential popes in 2005, the year Benedict was chosen, it wrote that Bergoglio was:
Update at 3:16 p.m. ET. It's Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, Argentina:
According to Vatican Radio, the new pope is Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, Argentina. It isn't known what papal name he's chosen. Bergoglio is 76.
Update at 3:12 p.m. ET. Moments Away:
The curtains have opened. The new pope is about to be announced. Click here to see Catholic News Service's list of the cardinals' birth names in Latin (which will help sort out who the choice is).
Update at 3:05 p.m. ET. Well In Time For Upcoming Holy Days:
The selection of a pope now means that he will be in place well ahead of several key days coming up in Catholics' liturgical calendar:
— Palm Sunday, on March 24.
— Good Friday, on March 29.
— Easter on March 31.
Update at 2:55 p.m. ET. "And So I Say To You, You Are Peter."
The Whispers in the Loggio blog notes that "the front-page of the Vatican website" is now devoted to Matthew 16:13-19:
"When Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi he asked his disciples, 'Who do people say that the Son of Man is?'
" 'I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.' "
Update at 2:50 p.m. ET. But Sooner Than Expected?
On Talk of the Nation moments ago, NPR's Sylvia Poggioli said "it was unexpected that [the choice would be made] so fast. This is just one ballot more than the election of [Benedict] in 2005 and he was a shoo-in. ... The fact that they did this quite fast, in five ballots, means they probably wanted to give a sign of unity in the church at a time when it is being buffeted by so many crises."
Update at 2:45 p.m. ET. Five Ballots Is In Line With Recent History:
In 2005, Pope Benedict XVI was elected on the fourth ballot, as this list from Radio Vatican shows. In papal elections before that: it took eight ballots to settle on Pope John Paul II in 1978; four ballots to elect Pope John Paul I in 1978; and six ballots to elect Pope Paul VI in 1963.
Update at 2:40 p.m. ET. Pageantry:
As you can see on the streaming coverage from RadioVaticanVideo, now that there's a new pope the Swiss Guards are back on active duty. As a band played, they just marched into the square.
Update 2:35 p.m. ET. Inside The Sistine Chapel, Wednesday Was "Super Tuesday."
National Catholic Reporter's John Allen writes that today's "four rounds of voting loom[ed] as the make-or-break test for whoever emerged yesterday as the early front-runner or front-runners." It was the Vatican equivalent, he says, of the Super Tuesday primaries in American presidential elections that often determine nominees.
Update at 2:30 p.m. ET. Changing Into White:
The Associated Press writes that the 266th pope "now changes into his papal white cassock, and one-by-one the cardinals approach him to swear their obedience. He will stop and pray in the Pauline Chapel for a few minutes before emerging on the loggia of the balcony overlooking St. Peter's Square. Preceding him to the balcony is French Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, the protodeacon, who announces 'Habemus Papam!' Latin for 'We have a pope' and then introduces him to the world in Latin. He then emerges and delivers his first public words as the leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics."
Update at 2:20 p.m. ET. First Clue To Identity Will Be Latin Version Of His Birth Name:
The new pope "will be introduced to those in the square below by French Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, assuming Tauran himself has not been elected, by the Latin version of his birth name following Tauran's proclamation of the Latin phrase Habemus papam' ('We have a pope'),'writes National Catholic Reporter.
It adds that:
We posted Tuesday on "5 Things About Popes And Their Names; Like, Why Do They Change Them?"
Update at 2:12 p.m. ET. Who Is It? We'll Know Soon:
According to Vatican Radio, which is streaming its coverage on YouTube, the identity of the new pope — who will appear on a balcony above St. Peter's Square — should be known within an hour or so. At this moment, Vatican Radio says, he's likely changing from the vestments he's worn as a cardinal into those made for a pope alone.
Catholic News Service adds that "the Vatican estimated it would be about an hour before Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, the top-ranking cardinal deacon, would come out onto the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica and confirm the election with the phrase 'Habemus papam' (We have a pope)."
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/03/13/174201655/a-pope-is-chosen?sc=nl&cc=brk-20130313-1412
The choice, on the second day of deliberations by a papal conclave, opened a direct connection to the Southern Hemisphere at a critical juncture when secularism and competing faiths are depleting the church’s ranks around the world and dysfunction is eroding its authority in Rome.
“The duty of the conclave was to appoint a bishop of Rome,” said Bergoglio, 76, who took the name Francis, the first pope in history to do so. “And it seems to me that my brother cardinals went to fetch him at the end of the world. But here I am.”
Bergoglio is widely believed to have been the runner-up in the 2005 conclave, which yielded Francis’s predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI. Last month, Benedict became the first pope in nearly 600 years to resign.
Shortly after his election, Francis called Benedict, now known as pope emeritus, with whom he will meet in the coming days. As the third non-Italian pope after the Polish John Paul II and the German Benedict, Francis seems to have ended the era of Italian dominance of the papacy.
(Click here to get the latest updates on our live blog.)
Francis, who will be officially installed in a Mass on Tuesday, is a pope of firsts. He chose a name never before used in the church’s 2,000 -year history, signaling to Vatican analysts that he wants a new beginning for the faith.
“It’s a genius move,” Marco Politi, a papal biographer and veteran Vatican watcher, said of the choice of Bergoglio. “It’s a non-Italian, non-European, not a man of the Roman government. It’s an opening to the Third World, a moderate. By taking the name Francis, it means a completely new beginning.”
“It’s highly significant for what Francis means,” said Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi, referring to Saint Francis of Assisi, who was known for his total vow of poverty. “It means that he is here to serve.”
Lombardi added that after weeks of focus on a Vatican scandal over the leaking of papal letters, and on talk about who exercises power and authority in the church, the selection of the humble Jesuit, who used to take the bus and cook for himself, amounted to a “refusal of power” and “was absolutely radical.”
But for many, it was Bergoglio’s hemisphere of origin, home to the largest percentage of Catholics in the world, that was potentially the most important “first” for the future of the church.
“We know how longed-for this was by the Catholics in Latin America,” said Lombardi. “This is a great response to this anticipation.”
That reaction was palpable in St. Peter’s Square as Bergoglio, after being introduced with an announcement of “habemus papam” (we have a pope), walked through crimson curtains and onto the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica to address the crowed, which greeted him with cheers of “Viva il papa!”
Clad in white and surrounded by scarlet-clad cardinals, he looked over a stately book and blessed the faithful below him. Then, in a gesture that many interpreted as a greater embrace of dialogue, he asked the crowd to “pray for me, and we’ll see each other soon.” Finally, with avuncular simplicity, he bid the crowd, “Good night, and have a good rest.”
“It’s the first pope from Latin America!” said Horacio Pintos, from Uruguay, who held his daughter on his shoulders. “It’s an opening to a continent that is full of faithful that has been ignored,” interrupted Carlos Becerril, 35, from Mexico. “We will now all be heard more strongly.”
President Obama extended warm wishes to Pope Francis I on behalf of the American people, noting his trail-blazing status as the first pontiff from the New World.
“As a champion of the poor and the most vulnerable among us, he carries forth the message of love and compassion that has inspired the world for more than two thousand years — that in each other we see the face of God,” Obama said in a statement. “As the first pope from the Americas, his selection also speaks to the strength and vitality of a region that is increasingly shaping our world, and alongside millions of Hispanic Americans, those of us in the United States share the joy of this historic day.”
Obama said he looks forward to working with the new pope “to advance peace, security and dignity for our fellow human beings, regardless of their faith.”
In picking Bergoglio, the cardinals apparently felt that he was the most effective messenger to protect and propagate the faith among the 200 million Catholics in the lively religious marketplace of Latin America, where Pentecostal and evangelical competitors are rising. His election reinforces the church’s insistence that it is a truly global institution. During a ceremony to mark the appointment of Benedict’s last batch of cardinals, none of whom hailed from Europe, members of the College of Cardinals repeatedly emphasized that universality.
“The church is universal, so it’s only normal that they come from all around the world,” said Cardinal Antonio Maria Vegliò of Italy, president of the Pontifical Council for Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People. “It’s beautiful. This time it was an unusual but happy development that there was no European.”
“It was a great chance to see that the Catholic church really is a global church and not only European,” said Cardinal Dominik Duka of the Czech Republic. “And as a result of the great demographic crises in our continent, there is a need to think of the church going in a new way.”
While the church has increasingly staffed its bureaucracy with foreign department heads, true control over the Holy See’s purse strings and power has rested with Europeans, most of whom are Italian. Bergoglio’s outsider status sends a strong signal, analysts and insiders said, that change has finally come.
On Sunday, the Rev. Thomas Rosica, a Vatican spokesman, bumped into Bergoglio as he was walking alone by Piazza Navona, wearing a simple black cassock.
“I want you to pray for me,” Bergoglio told Rosica, the spokesman recalled. “I’m a little nervous right now.”
Bergoglio’s election was announced by Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, the church’s most senior cardinal in the order of deacons, or the proto-deacon, who declared “habemus papam” and spoke the name of the new pope. But his words were barely audible, and there was initial confusion over the identity of the new leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics.
Bergoglio, the first Jesuit pope, spent nearly his entire career at home in Argentina, overseeing churches and shoe-leather priests, the Associated Press reported. He has long specialized in the kind of pastoral work considered an essential skill for the next pope.
In St. Peter’s Square, the election elicited exultation from Latin Americans. But many of the faithful seemed unfamiliar with their new leader.
“We don’t know a lot about him,” said Silvia Napolitano, 62, as she walked out of St. Peter’s Square with a friend. “It seems he has a very direct connection with the people. He seems simple. And we like Argentines; they’re open and sociable. You can tell from the way he speaks with that soft Italian accent.”
Gabriel Lopez-Betanzos, 29, an American seminarian in Rome, also knew little about the new pope and reserved any conclusions. “I’m a scientist,” he said. “I need more data.”
White smoke rose over the Sistine Chapel earlier Wednesday evening, signaling that the 115 voting cardinals had made their choice.
Crowds erupted in joy in St. Peter’s Square and waited anxiously for the presentation of the then-undisclosed new pope.
Bergoglio subsequently was revealed to the world on the balcony after entering the so-called room of tears, donning white papal vestments and praying with the cardinals who elected him.
As they awaited the announcement, thousands of people ran up the Via della Conciliazione, the broad avenue leading to St. Peter’s Square, holding umbrellas above their heads. A line of Polish nuns in white clasped each other’s hands. Clusters of students jumped up and down, and roars of joy passed over the sea of people like waves.
“Huge emotions,” said Claudio Santini, a lawyer from Rome who stood in a bowler hat in the square. “It’s not important where the pope is from, just that he can travel into people’s hearts.”
A marching band and lines of Swiss Guards flying the white and yellow Vatican colors proceeded up the basilica steps in front of the cheering crowds.
Standing at attention in front of the basilica, the band played the Italian national anthem as many in the crowd sang along — a sign of the close relationship between the Vatican and Italy.
The papal seal on the Vatican Web site, which had been cloaked under an umbrella during the interregnum following Benedict’s retirement, or sede vacante, now again displayed the papal tiara under the title “Habemus Papam.”
The white smoke, accompanied by the pealing of bells to eliminate any confusion, billowed from a flue on the roof of the Sistine Chapel, prompting the huge crowd gathered in the square to erupt in applause and cheers.
The election apparently came during the fifth round of balloting, after one vote Tuesday, two rounds in a morning session Wednesday and one in the early afternoon.
To be chosen, a candidate had to win the support of at least two-thirds of the 115 voting-age cardinals. Reported front-runners included Cardinals Angelo Scola of Italy, Marc Ouellet of Canada, and Odilo Pedro Schererof Brazil.
Because no one bloc of cardinals — organized around passport or priorities — was large enough on its own to generate the requisite 77 votes, a candidate needed to consolidate support from a cross-section of electors.
But since consensus apparently remained elusive, the cardinals looked to the less familiar names in their college, which is what happened when John Paul II was chosen in 1978.
“Today is the fundamental day,” Politi, a papal biographer and a veteran Vatican watcher with the newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano, said before the new pope was announced. “It is a referendum on Scola and whether the papacy will go back to an Italian or cross the Atlantic. For the first time there is a real possibility to have a pope from the Americas.”
The Rev. Frederico Lombardi, a Vatican spokesman, told reporters the cardinals returned to their quarters at Casa Santa Marta shortly before noon, after two morning votes did not result in a papal selection.
During a lunch and rest break that lasted nearly five hours, they were permitted to smoke, drink wine and — more importantly given their ongoing deliberations — talk and visit one another’s rooms.
“This is an extremely beautiful and intense moment,” Lombardi told reporters after the morning session ended, emphasizing that no pope since Pius XII has been chosen before the fourth ballot. “This is very normal. This is not indicative of any division among the cardinals.”
Benedict, now pope emeritus, spent much of Tuesday watching the pre-conclave proceedings on television and secluded in prayer, Lombardi said.
In St. Peter’s Square, faithful from many nations sang hymns and glanced frequently toward the six-foot chimney. Some clothed themselves in their national flags, cheerleading for the cardinals from their countries.
“Having a Brazilian pope would be better than winning the World Cup,” said Bruno Smania, a 15-year-old high school student from the Brazilian state of Parana, where Scherer spent part of his childhood. “It would be so important us, a sign that Brazil has really arrived.”
The sense that the next pope could revitalize the faith in whatever country he hails from was widely held here. Adam Potter, a Pittsburgh-born seminarian and former assistant to Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington, was camping out with a group of American and British student priests. He said he’d support any pope, but he hoped for an American.
“It’s easy for Americans to feel disconnected from the church,” Potter said. “But if we see [Cardinal Timothy] Dolan or Cardinal Sean O’Malley become pope, I know there would be a powerful feeling of joy in the United States, and I feel that’s exactly what we need.”
Conclaves are officially open-ended, but for nearly 200 years, none has lasted more than five days, and most have taken only two or three days.
Initially Tuesday when the conclave began, the focus was on a small group of papabili, or possible popes. In addition to the front-runners, other possibilities were Dolan of New York and O’Malley of Boston, either of whom, if elected, would have emerged as the first “superpower” pope.
Among those who gathered in the square Wednesday morning to await word of a new pontiff was Angela Troilo, 77. She stood by the obelisk in the center of the square, surrounded by puddles and looking up at the chimney.
“The church used to do so much!” Troilo said, describing herself as a poor working woman who had been let down by her country and needed her church. “The Italian government is dead and buried. We need someone with energy, who can command!”
Cardinal John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan of Nigeria, in an interview before the conclave, said the next pope, like any individual, “will come with his own baggage, his own background, competence, training, spiritual attitudes” — and will find that guiding the church can be more complicated than governing a single country.
“As a nation, the church is a universal association,” Onaiyekan said. “The church is spread all over the world. . . . And each distinct part of the church, according to God’s will, is headed by bishops whose job it is to face the realities around them and use them to defend the principles of the church and move the church forward.”
Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster agreed. “The challenges are in some ways quite startling,” he said. “There is such cultural change going on around the world, and such shifts of paradigm.”
Before their first journey Tuesday to the Sistine Chapel, the cardinals celebrated a Mass dedicated to the pope’s election. Angelo Sodano, dean of the College of Cardinals, delivered the homily, emphasizing the need for a good pastor and a strong commitment to evangelization.
“In the wake of this service of love toward the church and toward all of humanity, the last popes have been builders of so many good initiatives for people and for the international community, tirelessly promoting justice and peace,” said Sodano, who is past 80 and therefore not eligible to participate in the conclave. “Let us pray that the future pope may continue this unceasing work on the world level. . . . Let us pray that the Lord will grant us a pontiff who will embrace this noble mission with a generous heart.”
William Branigin in Washington contributed to this report.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/on-day-2-of-papal-conclave-alliances-should-take-shape/2013/03/13/5d88b616-8bba-11e2-9838-d62f083ba93f_story.html?wpisrc=al_national
Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina elected pope, takes name Pope Francis
By Jason Horowitz and Anthony Faiola,
VATICAN CITY — The cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church broke Europe’s millennia-long stranglehold on the papacy and astonished the Catholic world Wednesday, electing Jesuit Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina as the 266th pope.The choice, on the second day of deliberations by a papal conclave, opened a direct connection to the Southern Hemisphere at a critical juncture when secularism and competing faiths are depleting the church’s ranks around the world and dysfunction is eroding its authority in Rome.
“The duty of the conclave was to appoint a bishop of Rome,” said Bergoglio, 76, who took the name Francis, the first pope in history to do so. “And it seems to me that my brother cardinals went to fetch him at the end of the world. But here I am.”
Bergoglio is widely believed to have been the runner-up in the 2005 conclave, which yielded Francis’s predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI. Last month, Benedict became the first pope in nearly 600 years to resign.
Shortly after his election, Francis called Benedict, now known as pope emeritus, with whom he will meet in the coming days. As the third non-Italian pope after the Polish John Paul II and the German Benedict, Francis seems to have ended the era of Italian dominance of the papacy.
(Click here to get the latest updates on our live blog.)
Francis, who will be officially installed in a Mass on Tuesday, is a pope of firsts. He chose a name never before used in the church’s 2,000 -year history, signaling to Vatican analysts that he wants a new beginning for the faith.
“It’s a genius move,” Marco Politi, a papal biographer and veteran Vatican watcher, said of the choice of Bergoglio. “It’s a non-Italian, non-European, not a man of the Roman government. It’s an opening to the Third World, a moderate. By taking the name Francis, it means a completely new beginning.”
“It’s highly significant for what Francis means,” said Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi, referring to Saint Francis of Assisi, who was known for his total vow of poverty. “It means that he is here to serve.”
Lombardi added that after weeks of focus on a Vatican scandal over the leaking of papal letters, and on talk about who exercises power and authority in the church, the selection of the humble Jesuit, who used to take the bus and cook for himself, amounted to a “refusal of power” and “was absolutely radical.”
But for many, it was Bergoglio’s hemisphere of origin, home to the largest percentage of Catholics in the world, that was potentially the most important “first” for the future of the church.
“We know how longed-for this was by the Catholics in Latin America,” said Lombardi. “This is a great response to this anticipation.”
That reaction was palpable in St. Peter’s Square as Bergoglio, after being introduced with an announcement of “habemus papam” (we have a pope), walked through crimson curtains and onto the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica to address the crowed, which greeted him with cheers of “Viva il papa!”
Clad in white and surrounded by scarlet-clad cardinals, he looked over a stately book and blessed the faithful below him. Then, in a gesture that many interpreted as a greater embrace of dialogue, he asked the crowd to “pray for me, and we’ll see each other soon.” Finally, with avuncular simplicity, he bid the crowd, “Good night, and have a good rest.”
“It’s the first pope from Latin America!” said Horacio Pintos, from Uruguay, who held his daughter on his shoulders. “It’s an opening to a continent that is full of faithful that has been ignored,” interrupted Carlos Becerril, 35, from Mexico. “We will now all be heard more strongly.”
President Obama extended warm wishes to Pope Francis I on behalf of the American people, noting his trail-blazing status as the first pontiff from the New World.
“As a champion of the poor and the most vulnerable among us, he carries forth the message of love and compassion that has inspired the world for more than two thousand years — that in each other we see the face of God,” Obama said in a statement. “As the first pope from the Americas, his selection also speaks to the strength and vitality of a region that is increasingly shaping our world, and alongside millions of Hispanic Americans, those of us in the United States share the joy of this historic day.”
Obama said he looks forward to working with the new pope “to advance peace, security and dignity for our fellow human beings, regardless of their faith.”
In picking Bergoglio, the cardinals apparently felt that he was the most effective messenger to protect and propagate the faith among the 200 million Catholics in the lively religious marketplace of Latin America, where Pentecostal and evangelical competitors are rising. His election reinforces the church’s insistence that it is a truly global institution. During a ceremony to mark the appointment of Benedict’s last batch of cardinals, none of whom hailed from Europe, members of the College of Cardinals repeatedly emphasized that universality.
“The church is universal, so it’s only normal that they come from all around the world,” said Cardinal Antonio Maria Vegliò of Italy, president of the Pontifical Council for Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People. “It’s beautiful. This time it was an unusual but happy development that there was no European.”
“It was a great chance to see that the Catholic church really is a global church and not only European,” said Cardinal Dominik Duka of the Czech Republic. “And as a result of the great demographic crises in our continent, there is a need to think of the church going in a new way.”
While the church has increasingly staffed its bureaucracy with foreign department heads, true control over the Holy See’s purse strings and power has rested with Europeans, most of whom are Italian. Bergoglio’s outsider status sends a strong signal, analysts and insiders said, that change has finally come.
On Sunday, the Rev. Thomas Rosica, a Vatican spokesman, bumped into Bergoglio as he was walking alone by Piazza Navona, wearing a simple black cassock.
“I want you to pray for me,” Bergoglio told Rosica, the spokesman recalled. “I’m a little nervous right now.”
Bergoglio’s election was announced by Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, the church’s most senior cardinal in the order of deacons, or the proto-deacon, who declared “habemus papam” and spoke the name of the new pope. But his words were barely audible, and there was initial confusion over the identity of the new leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics.
Bergoglio, the first Jesuit pope, spent nearly his entire career at home in Argentina, overseeing churches and shoe-leather priests, the Associated Press reported. He has long specialized in the kind of pastoral work considered an essential skill for the next pope.
In St. Peter’s Square, the election elicited exultation from Latin Americans. But many of the faithful seemed unfamiliar with their new leader.
“We don’t know a lot about him,” said Silvia Napolitano, 62, as she walked out of St. Peter’s Square with a friend. “It seems he has a very direct connection with the people. He seems simple. And we like Argentines; they’re open and sociable. You can tell from the way he speaks with that soft Italian accent.”
Gabriel Lopez-Betanzos, 29, an American seminarian in Rome, also knew little about the new pope and reserved any conclusions. “I’m a scientist,” he said. “I need more data.”
White smoke rose over the Sistine Chapel earlier Wednesday evening, signaling that the 115 voting cardinals had made their choice.
Crowds erupted in joy in St. Peter’s Square and waited anxiously for the presentation of the then-undisclosed new pope.
Bergoglio subsequently was revealed to the world on the balcony after entering the so-called room of tears, donning white papal vestments and praying with the cardinals who elected him.
As they awaited the announcement, thousands of people ran up the Via della Conciliazione, the broad avenue leading to St. Peter’s Square, holding umbrellas above their heads. A line of Polish nuns in white clasped each other’s hands. Clusters of students jumped up and down, and roars of joy passed over the sea of people like waves.
“Huge emotions,” said Claudio Santini, a lawyer from Rome who stood in a bowler hat in the square. “It’s not important where the pope is from, just that he can travel into people’s hearts.”
A marching band and lines of Swiss Guards flying the white and yellow Vatican colors proceeded up the basilica steps in front of the cheering crowds.
Standing at attention in front of the basilica, the band played the Italian national anthem as many in the crowd sang along — a sign of the close relationship between the Vatican and Italy.
The papal seal on the Vatican Web site, which had been cloaked under an umbrella during the interregnum following Benedict’s retirement, or sede vacante, now again displayed the papal tiara under the title “Habemus Papam.”
The white smoke, accompanied by the pealing of bells to eliminate any confusion, billowed from a flue on the roof of the Sistine Chapel, prompting the huge crowd gathered in the square to erupt in applause and cheers.
The election apparently came during the fifth round of balloting, after one vote Tuesday, two rounds in a morning session Wednesday and one in the early afternoon.
To be chosen, a candidate had to win the support of at least two-thirds of the 115 voting-age cardinals. Reported front-runners included Cardinals Angelo Scola of Italy, Marc Ouellet of Canada, and Odilo Pedro Schererof Brazil.
Because no one bloc of cardinals — organized around passport or priorities — was large enough on its own to generate the requisite 77 votes, a candidate needed to consolidate support from a cross-section of electors.
But since consensus apparently remained elusive, the cardinals looked to the less familiar names in their college, which is what happened when John Paul II was chosen in 1978.
“Today is the fundamental day,” Politi, a papal biographer and a veteran Vatican watcher with the newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano, said before the new pope was announced. “It is a referendum on Scola and whether the papacy will go back to an Italian or cross the Atlantic. For the first time there is a real possibility to have a pope from the Americas.”
The Rev. Frederico Lombardi, a Vatican spokesman, told reporters the cardinals returned to their quarters at Casa Santa Marta shortly before noon, after two morning votes did not result in a papal selection.
During a lunch and rest break that lasted nearly five hours, they were permitted to smoke, drink wine and — more importantly given their ongoing deliberations — talk and visit one another’s rooms.
“This is an extremely beautiful and intense moment,” Lombardi told reporters after the morning session ended, emphasizing that no pope since Pius XII has been chosen before the fourth ballot. “This is very normal. This is not indicative of any division among the cardinals.”
Benedict, now pope emeritus, spent much of Tuesday watching the pre-conclave proceedings on television and secluded in prayer, Lombardi said.
In St. Peter’s Square, faithful from many nations sang hymns and glanced frequently toward the six-foot chimney. Some clothed themselves in their national flags, cheerleading for the cardinals from their countries.
“Having a Brazilian pope would be better than winning the World Cup,” said Bruno Smania, a 15-year-old high school student from the Brazilian state of Parana, where Scherer spent part of his childhood. “It would be so important us, a sign that Brazil has really arrived.”
The sense that the next pope could revitalize the faith in whatever country he hails from was widely held here. Adam Potter, a Pittsburgh-born seminarian and former assistant to Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington, was camping out with a group of American and British student priests. He said he’d support any pope, but he hoped for an American.
“It’s easy for Americans to feel disconnected from the church,” Potter said. “But if we see [Cardinal Timothy] Dolan or Cardinal Sean O’Malley become pope, I know there would be a powerful feeling of joy in the United States, and I feel that’s exactly what we need.”
Conclaves are officially open-ended, but for nearly 200 years, none has lasted more than five days, and most have taken only two or three days.
Initially Tuesday when the conclave began, the focus was on a small group of papabili, or possible popes. In addition to the front-runners, other possibilities were Dolan of New York and O’Malley of Boston, either of whom, if elected, would have emerged as the first “superpower” pope.
Among those who gathered in the square Wednesday morning to await word of a new pontiff was Angela Troilo, 77. She stood by the obelisk in the center of the square, surrounded by puddles and looking up at the chimney.
“The church used to do so much!” Troilo said, describing herself as a poor working woman who had been let down by her country and needed her church. “The Italian government is dead and buried. We need someone with energy, who can command!”
Cardinal John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan of Nigeria, in an interview before the conclave, said the next pope, like any individual, “will come with his own baggage, his own background, competence, training, spiritual attitudes” — and will find that guiding the church can be more complicated than governing a single country.
“As a nation, the church is a universal association,” Onaiyekan said. “The church is spread all over the world. . . . And each distinct part of the church, according to God’s will, is headed by bishops whose job it is to face the realities around them and use them to defend the principles of the church and move the church forward.”
Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster agreed. “The challenges are in some ways quite startling,” he said. “There is such cultural change going on around the world, and such shifts of paradigm.”
Before their first journey Tuesday to the Sistine Chapel, the cardinals celebrated a Mass dedicated to the pope’s election. Angelo Sodano, dean of the College of Cardinals, delivered the homily, emphasizing the need for a good pastor and a strong commitment to evangelization.
“In the wake of this service of love toward the church and toward all of humanity, the last popes have been builders of so many good initiatives for people and for the international community, tirelessly promoting justice and peace,” said Sodano, who is past 80 and therefore not eligible to participate in the conclave. “Let us pray that the future pope may continue this unceasing work on the world level. . . . Let us pray that the Lord will grant us a pontiff who will embrace this noble mission with a generous heart.”
William Branigin in Washington contributed to this report.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/on-day-2-of-papal-conclave-alliances-should-take-shape/2013/03/13/5d88b616-8bba-11e2-9838-d62f083ba93f_story.html?wpisrc=al_national
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