The Vatican made history on March 13 by electing a first non-European Pope in more than 1000 years. After a series of deliberation and discussions, the Papal Conclave elected Jorge Bergoglio from Argentina as the next Pope. He will be known as Pope Francis.
Jorge Bergoglio also became the first ever from the Americas to become the Pope. The crowd had been waiting for hours to see the white smoke, which finally came out, as the cardinals elected a successor to Pope Benedict XVI. People chanted “Habemus Papam,” or “We have a pope.”
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Bergoglio was elected on the fifth ballot. Interestingly, he had reportedly finished second in the 2005 Papal Conclave that produced Benedict XVI, who recently resigned due to “poor health”. He became the first Pope in 600 years to resign from his post.
Jorge Bergoglio, the 76-year-old archbishop of Buenos Aires, is known for giving a new dimension to the Argentine Church, which was considered as the most conservative in Latin America. He is also a member of the Society of Jesus.