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Holy Smoke!
Do Roman Ca t holics K n ow HCardinal Jorge Bergoglio elected 266th pontiff
and takes name Pope Francis
Pope Francis runs into immediate controversy over role in Argentina's troubled history
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The cardinals of the Roman Catholic church have chosen as their new pope a man from almost
"the end of the world" - the first non-European to be elected for almost 1,300 years and the
first-ever member of the Jesuit order.
Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the archbishop of Buenos Aires, took as his papal name Francis –
an
early indication perhaps of a reign he hopes will be marked by inspirational preaching and
evangelisation.
But the cardinals' choice risked running into immediate controversy over the new pope's role in
Argentina's troubled history. In his book, El Silencio, a prominent Argentinian journalist
alleged that the then Jorge Bergoglio connived with the Argentine navy to hide from a
visiting delegation of the Inter-American Human Rights Commission political prisoners of the
military dictatorshop.
Horacio Verbitsky wrote that the prelate allowed his holiday home on an island called El
Silencio in the River Plate to be used for the purpose.
The new pope appeared on the balcony over the entrance to St Peter's basilica more than an hour
after white smoke poured from the chimney above the Sistine chapel, signalling that the
cardinals had made their choice. Dressed in his new white robes, the bespectacled Argentinian
prelate looked pensive and perhaps a little intimidated as he looked out at the sea of jubilant
humanity in the square.
The former Cardinal Bergoglio was not among the front-runners. But he obtained more votesthan any other candidate except ex-pope Benedict in the 2005 conclave, and – although his
election came as a surprise – he was certainly not a rank outsider.
Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who is now Pope Francis.
Photograph: Marco Longari/AFP/Getty Image
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According to some accounts, however, he was not chosen eight years ago because he begged his
fellow-cardinals not to continue voting for him. As the cheering died away, he told the crowd
that his peers had been tasked with finding a Bishop of Rome. "And it seems that they went
almost to the end of the world to find him. But we're here," he said with a smile.
After a prayer for his predecessor Benedict XVI the new pope invited the faithful in the square to
"pray for the entire world".
And he added: "I hope that this path for the church will be one fruitful for evangelisation."
Faced with a sharp choice between those cardinals who wanted a thorough shake-up of the
Vatican and those who recoiled at the prospect, it appeared that the electors in the Sistine Chapel
opted instead for a compromise. Bergoglio has a reputation for both political canniness and
reforming drive.
Among the tests facing the 76 year-old Francis will be whether he proves equal to the awesome
managerial demands of the job.
The fumata bianca – the white smoke signal that marks the successful conclusion of a papal
conclave -- arrived after five ballots at the end of the second day of voting. The smoke that
poured out of the comignolo, the copper and steel tube on the roof of the Sistine chapel, was
greeted with cries of delight and applause from the crowd below. Soon afterwards, the bells of St
Peter's rang out, confirming that a new pope had taken over the spiritual leadership of the world's
1.2 billion baptised Catholics.
Inside the Sistine Chapel, after the final vote was cast, the most junior of the cardinals, James
Harvey, a former prefect of the papal household, called in the secretary of the college of
cardinals, Monsignor Lorenzo Baldisseri, and the master of papal liturgical ceremonies,
Monsignor Guido Marini, to witness the new pope's acceptance of one of the most daunting jobs
on earth. The most senior of the electors, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, approached the pope-to-
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be and – in accordance with time-honoured tradition – asked him, in Latin: "Do you accept your
canonical election as supreme pontiff?"
Having obtained his consent, he will have asked him: "By what name do you wish to be called?"
The master of ceremonies, acting as a notary, will then have summoned two of his staff to act as
witnesses, and prepared the document that certifies the new pope's acceptance.
Newly elected popes are taken to be robed in the so-called Room of Tears, its name an indication
of the reluctance with which most approach the task for which they have been chosen. The last
holder of the office, Benedict XVI, introduced a change into the ritual that allows for the new
pope to pray before he is announced to the world.
Benedict abdicated on 28 February, saying that he was no longer able to cope with the
burden of his office. He was the first pontiff to resign voluntarily since Celestine V in 1294.
The world's Catholics will be looking to his successor to provide not only spiritual inspiration
but also firm leadership. The new pope was chosen against a background of turbulence and strife
unprecedented in modern times. He takes on the leadership of a church whose faithful have been
shocked by a proliferation of clerical sex abuse scandals throughout the rich world and dismayed
by events in and around the Vatican.
The day for the 115 cardinal-electors began at about 6.30am local time in the Casa Santa Marta,
their simple but comfortable – and highly protected – residence in the walled city state. After
breakfast, they made their way to the Apostolic Palace, the home of the popes, for morning mass
in the Pauline Chapel. By about 9.30am, they had settled themselves into the Sistine Chapel for
prayers and the resumption of voting.
Benedict's startling decision to resign came after years of mounting tension and discreet but
venomous infighting in the Roman Curia, the central administration of the Catholic church. Last
year, some of the pope's correspondence, pointing to bitter rivalries and maladministration – or
worse – in the Vatican was published in book form.
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Benedict's butler, Paolo Gabriele, was tried and imprisoned for leaking the documents, but the
journalist to whom the papers were passed has said that his source was part of a much broader
network of disaffected Vatican employees and officials. Gabriele's arrest coincided with a
renewed controversy over the Vatican bank, whose chairman was summarily dismissed last May.
The scandals – and a string of controversies over the pope's own declarations – distracted
attention from what was expected to be the central theme of his papacy. Benedict came to the
leadership of the Catholic church as the pope who would begin the process of re-evangelising an
increasingly secular western world.
That too will be an important challenge for his successor. In the approach to the conclave several
cardinals said they wanted a great pastor for the world's biggest Christian denomination.
No indication of how or why the new pope was chosen was expected to emerge. On Tuesday,
before the start of the conclave, the cardinal-electors took an oath of secrecy, as had those
Vatican employees and officials involved in the election.
Additional precautions included a sweep of the Sistine Chapel to ensure that no listening devices
had been planted inside and the use of electronic jamming techniques.
References:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/13/pope-francis-mario-bergoglio-election