VATICAN CITY: Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 76, of Argentina has been elected as Pope. He is the first Pope from Latin America in the history of the Catholic Church.
The new Pope was announced by French Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran from a balcony over the main doors of St. Peter’s Basilica as tens of thousands of onlookers cheered from the square below.
Addressing the crowd, Pope Francis I asked the faithful to pray for him before blessing the crowd, who greeted him with jubilation.
“Good night and good rest,” Pope Francis I said. As the crowd shouting “Grazie!” in reply, bells began sounding throughout Vatican City.
Bergoglio, the archbishop of Buenos Aires, is the Argentine-born son of an Italian railway worker.
The 76-year-old Jesuit is viewed as a compassionate conservative who reportedly came second during the 2005 conclave which chose his predecessor Benedict XVI.
