VATICAN CITY
The Guardian (UK)
John Hooper in Vatican City
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 13 March 2013
The Roman Catholic church has a new pope: Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio from Buenos Aires in Argentina, , the first ever to come from South America, who has taken the name Francis.
He was announced to the crowd waiting in St Peter’s Square from the vast balcony that runs across the front of St Peter’s basilica.
Earlier, white smoke had flowed from the chimney above the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, signalling that one of the candidates for the pontificate had obtained the necessary two-thirds majority for election. The fumata bianca– the white smoke signal that marks the successful conclusion of a papal conclave – arrived after five ballots on the second day of voting.
The smoke that poured out of the comignolo, the copper and steel chimney 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 the 266th pope had taken over the spiritual leadership of the world’s 1.2 billion baptised Catholics.
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