The New Pope: Bergoglio of Argentina

In Vatican City, with a puff of white smoke from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel and to the cheers of thousands of rain-soaked faithful, a gathering of Catholic Cardinals picked a new pope from among their midst on Wednesday. Choosing the cardinal from Argentina, the first South American to lead the church.

The new pope this 2013 is Jorge Mario Bergoglio (it is pronounced as Ber-Goal-io) and will be called Francis, the 266^th pontiff of Roman Catholic Church. He is also the first non-European leader of the church in more that 1,200 years.

In choosing Francis, 76, who had been the archbishop of Buenos Aires, the cardinals sent the powerful message that the future of the church lies in the global south, home to the bulk of the world's Catholic.

“I would like to thank you for your embrace,” the new pope, dressed in white, said from the white balcony on St. Peter’s Basilica as thousands cheered joyously below. “My brother cardinals have chosen one who is from far away, but here I am.”

Speaking in Italian as he blessed the faithful, Francis asked the audience to “pray for me, and we’ll see each other soon.”

“Good night, and have a good rest,” he concluded, in a grandfatherly, almost casual tone.

“Habemus papam!” members of the crowd shouted in Latin, waving umbrellas and flags. “We have a pope!” Others cried, “Viva il Papa!”

“It was like waiting for the birth of a baby, only better,” said a Roman man, Giuliano Uncini. A child sitting atop his father’s shoulders waved a crucifix.

Francis, who is also the first member of the church’s Jesuit order to become pope, is known as a humble man who spoke out for the poor and led an austere life in Buenos Aires. He was born to Italian immigrant parents and was raised in the Argentine capital.

The new pope inherits a church wrestling with an array of challenges that intensified during his predecessor, Benedict XVI, including a shortage of priests, growing competition from evangelical churches in the Southern Hemisphere, a sexual abuse crisis that has undermined the church’s moral authority in the West and difficulties governing the Vatican itself.

Source: nytimes

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