Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina elected pope, takes name Pope Francis

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Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina elected pope, takes name Pope Francis


By Jason Horowitz and Anthony Faiola, Wednesday, March 13,


VATICAN CITY — The cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church broke Europe’s long stranglehold on the papacy 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, 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.

Francis I 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 the Rev. Federico Lombardi, a Vatican spokesman. “It means that he is here to serve.”

But for many, Bergoglio’s country of origin is the first that matters most for 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 came to the balcony and, in his Argentine-accented Italian, addressed the crowd, which greeted him with cheers of “Viva il papa!”

“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.”

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, 76, 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 Scherer of 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.



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