Via The Telehaph
Pope Francis the humble: Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio becomes first pontiff from the Americas
Blinking and looking as surprised as anyone, he stepped from behind the blood-red velvet curtains and acknowledged the rapturous cheers from the thousands thronging St Peter’s Square.
With the words “buona sera” — good evening — Jorge Mario Bergoglio, a 76-year-old Argentine, became the Roman Catholic Church’s 266th pope, the first from outside Europe in more than a millennium, the first from the Americas and the first Jesuit to ascend to the throne of St Peter.
He expressed wonder that his 114 brother cardinals had looked to “the end of the world” to find a successor to Benedict XVI. Cardinal Bergoglio was an unexpected choice — he had not featured in any of the front-runner lists that were drawn up by Vatican-watchers in the days before the election.
A stunned-looking Pope Francis I, dressed in white vestments and with a crucifix around his neck, shyly waved to the crowd of tens of thousands who shrugged off the rain and cold in the square below.
His decision to pick the name Francis was interpreted as a sign of his desire to embrace simplicity and humility, in what could be an epic shift for the Church.
His personal style is said to be the antithesis of Vatican pomp and the name he has chosen is fitting for a man known for catching the bus and eschewing the luxuries of high office.
He stepped on to the balcony of St Peter’s after a cardinal in scarlet robes announced “Habemus Papum” — “We have a pope!”
Cardinal Bergoglio had reportedly finished second in the 2005 conclave that elected Joseph Ratzinger as Benedict XVI.
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