VATICAN CITY The world's 1.2 billion Catholics have a new leader. His name is Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, but he will be known henceforth as Pope Francis.
Bergoglio, the former Archbishop of Buenos Aires and a member of the largest Catholic order, the Jesuits, is the first pope from the new world. Born in Argentina to parents of Italian descent, he represents a bridge between the Church's European roots and its future, which lies, according to many, in Latin America, Asia and Africa.
Bergoglio's chosen name, Francis, is a nod to the patron saint of Italy, Saint Francis of Assisi.
"I know him," Monsignor Anthony Figueiredo, a director of the North American College in Rome and a CBS News Vatican consultant told CBSNews.com shortly after Pope Francis appeared. "He is complete simplicity; down to Earth, a man with the people."
The next couple of days promises to be a momentous series of firsts for Francis before his inauguration on Tuesday at St. Peter's Square.
On Thursday morning, Pope Francis will visit privately an unnamed Marian Church in Rome, according to the Vatican. Also, it is likely that Francis will also see his predecessor, Benedict XVI, that same day, Vatican Press Secretary Father Thomas Rosica told "CBS Evening News" anchor Scott Pelley.
Later that Thursday afternoon, the pope will preside Mass with the cardinals at the Sistine Chapel, according to the Vatican.
On Friday morning, the pope welcome and address the cardinals at Clementine Hall.
This Saturday morning, Francis will speak to the press at Paul VI Hall. Then on Sunday at noon, the pope will deliver the Angelus address, according to CBS Radio Vatican Correspondent Sabina Castelfranco.
It took the 115 cardinal electors locked inside the ornate Sistine Chapel just a day and a half to send a cloud of white smoke up a chimney and into the air over St. Peter's Square, signaling the conclusive vote -- at least 77 of them agreed that Bergoglio was the right man to succeed Pope Benedict XVI.
One of Francis' first phone calls as pope was to his predecessor, the now-Pope Emeritus Benedict. The Rev. Thomas Rosica, deputy Vatican spokesman, said the new pontiff was already "writing the playbook" with his unscripted move. The Vatican later announced an installation Mass, traditionally attended by VIPs and faithful from the pope's home country, would be held on March 19.
Thousands of the faithful and the curious huddled underneath umbrellas in a rain-drenched St. Peter's Square erupted in applause and cheers upon seeing the white plume drift over the Chapel. Three American tourists told CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips they were in Rome on vacation and just came to the square to "see if we'd get lucky." They got lucky, and witnessed history.
Within an hour, Cardinal Jean Louis Tauran, the senior cardinal deacon of the Church, stepped onto the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica and announced in Latin the name of the man elected to lead the faith -- the 266th pope and the 265th successor to the apostle Peter, from whom the basilica and the square take their name. Catholics believe Jesus Christ himself chose Peter to lead his church on Earth.
CBS News correspondent Allen Pizzey notes that no pope in the Church's near-2,000 year history has ever been so bold as to claim the name of the original pontiff for himself -- there has never been a Peter II.
Shortly after Tauran's announcement the new Holy Father appeared on the balcony, clad in his papal vestments, to give his first blessing. He then asked the thousands gathered below, in Italian, to give him their blessing in return.
After accepting the position before his fellow cardinals and informing them of his chosen papal name, Pope Francis will have gone to pray in the Pauline Chapel, across from the Sistine Chapel, before greeting the crowd.
In spite of a much-discussed divide among the prelates heading into the conclave, pitting traditionalists from the Vatican establishment against those more interested in reform, the cardinals have concluded their election in a time frame typical, if not shorter than, the past six conclaves.
The decisive action to install Bergoglio may be taken as a deliberate move by the clerics to disprove the widespread claims of a bitter division within the College of Cardinals.
The new pontiff inherits a church still reeling from the child sexual abuse scandal and mired in financial and bureaucratic mismanagement which his predecessor Pope Benedict XVI failed to address before he shocked the world by becoming the first pope to retire in almost 600 years.
In Pope Francis, the cardinals will hope for a man capable of addressing the internal problems of governance brought to light by the torrid Vatileaks scandal last year, and a man with enough of the persona and charm of Pope John Paul II to swell church attendance.
just another old guy who is made pope. will he see to it that sex offenders among the catholic clergy are defrocked and prosecuted as criminals? will he see to it that the riches of the catholic church are spent on feeding, clothing, housing the poor? time will tell if he will be any different that past popes.
All the media publicity and talking points over the new Pope as representative of the non-European Catholic faithful is truly stretching hyperbole and basic facts. Jorge Mario Bergoglio was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and is actually one of 5 children born to Italian immigrant parents Mario Jose Bergoglio (railway worker) and Regina Maria Sivori (housewife).
Moreover, Pope Francis represents a very slim step away from the usual conservative orthodoxy of the Roman Catholic hierarchy that continues to dominate church thinking and actions. Though it is hoped that he has the courage and faith to break new ground in correcting the many errors and known problems in Catholic churches across the globe --- as well as his record of a personal focus on the world's poor. Although his personal focus may not be enough slow the increasing transition of many in Latin America and Africa toward Pentecostal, Fundamentalist and Evangelical faiths.
Until a Pope is chosen that genuinely and ethnically represents most of the faithful in South America, Central America, Asia and throughout the African continent --- there can be no pretense that Catholicism is still a solidly old century Eurocentric religion in a different 21st century reality.
It should be no surprise to anyone that the Catholic hierarchy will still fight to maintain their status quo. Even if it's still maintained through the backdoor of choosing another European (Italian) Pope that happens to be from Argentina.
Why do non-Catholics seem to always have the strongest and most negative opinions that they really have no business having? Yes, I'm talking to you. If you don't have anything positive to say, then please, for heaven's sake, go find a religion you like and support it. There are literally, like one or two religions out there that you might like. And if you put half as much energy supporting that religion as you do tearing down mine, it should do fine. Do us Catholics a favor, and please, please, just mind your own business.
oh puhleeze, ease off. catholics and their religion are tossed around because catholics make the news with sex offenders, pedophiles among their clergy. catholic organization protects them, hides them, and they are nor prosecuted and defrocked immediately. catholic congregations continue to tithe to a criminal organization, the catholic church. other religions are also tossed around, not just the catholic religion.
Pope Francis will bring the Church back to rightful place of Glory, according to the conservative vision that was lost by the actions of Vatican II. What now must be maintained by certain holy societies within the Church, will now be restored to the entire faithful. Thanks be!
A Religion cannot be Democratic. Otherwise, do what is most convenience for you and that Church will follow you. Otherwise, why have any religion if you can do as you please? If you want church marriages for pets, then start your own religion just like the other more than 800 religious sects and cults. If you want priests to marry, then there are already more than 700 other religions which allows it.
People of the world should follow a religion and not the other way around.
The U.S. Constitution is not a Bible competing with other Bibles.
Priests getting married or not has NOTHING to do with the Catholic Church Christ founded. Celibacy was MANDATED during Medieval times because the Church was going broke and couldn't afford to support all those wives and kids, under the guise that all that sublimated energy would go into glorifying God. Unfortunately, that is NOT where all the energy went, but even AFTER the Church recouped enough money to be solvent, and "AHA moment" led the GREED to continue the abnormal mandate onto EVERY single guy who had the vocation to be a priest. Nice, easy accumulation of money began replacing GOD with the gods of GREED, POWER, MONEY, GOLD!! You get the picture! Voluntary celibacy is wonderful for those who can succeed in the sacrifice, but only a very RARE individual is able to manage the life. The sin that has come out of the "MANDATED" celibacy, and the nice little cloistered hiding place it provides for pedophiles, while greedily lavishing in the wealth and power created, sort of eliminated the very FIRST commandment of God: "I am the Lord, thy God; thou shalt not have strange gods before ME." But, the money saved, by not allowing wives, and not having to pay for the feeding, clothing, medical care, and education of all the children, and not providing all that separate housing, grew into one of the most wealthy and powerful organizations in the world! NOT at all the plan that Christ taught us or mandated to His very OWN selection of apostles and lives! It really isn't too hard to figure out. Christ's example of life would have NEVER led to the sinful mess His Church has created up to this day. I just hope THIS Pope Francis IS the man to BEGIN correcting all the sinfulness and GREED!
The only ones who care are old nuns and self-absorbed priests who believe that the presence of this guy somehow makes the religious nonsense they believe in real.
The instincts of an old conservative may be to cling to unspoken tradition-- that is, to speak boldly of reform while doing the utmost to hide or disguise internal impropriety, hoping it will reform itself, or disappear, or be denied into vacuous oblivion. This they may believe is relinquishing control to Godly intervention, hoping for the miracle that does what holy men should themselves have done-- and in devout non-doing there is little hope but to repeat past errors and allow unpurged sins to continue unaddressed. This kind of denial, coverup, and helpless inaction is common worldwide-- but to excuse such human failings as acts of faith is to falter and to be directed by human weakness rather than by divinely inspired strength.
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Moreover, Pope Francis represents a very slim step away from the usual conservative orthodoxy of the Roman Catholic hierarchy that continues to dominate church thinking and actions. Though it is hoped that he has the courage and faith to break new ground in correcting the many errors and known problems in Catholic churches across the globe --- as well as his record of a personal focus on the world's poor. Although his personal focus may not be enough slow the increasing transition of many in Latin America and Africa toward Pentecostal, Fundamentalist and Evangelical faiths.
Until a Pope is chosen that genuinely and ethnically represents most of the faithful in South America, Central America, Asia and throughout the African continent --- there can be no pretense that Catholicism is still a solidly old century Eurocentric religion in a different 21st century reality.
It should be no surprise to anyone that the Catholic hierarchy will still fight to maintain their status quo. Even if it's still maintained through the backdoor of choosing another European (Italian) Pope that happens to be from Argentina.
A Religion cannot be Democratic. Otherwise, do what is most convenience for you and that Church will follow you. Otherwise, why have any religion if you can do as you please? If you want church marriages for pets, then start your own religion just like the other more than 800 religious sects and cults. If you want priests to marry, then there are already more than 700 other religions which allows it.
People of the world should follow a religion and not the other way around.
The U.S. Constitution is not a Bible competing with other Bibles.
The only ones who care are old nuns and self-absorbed priests who believe that the presence of this guy somehow makes the religious nonsense they believe in real.
What do you believe in beside Selfishness?