New Pope Announced as Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina

VATICAN CITY) — Argentine Jorge Bergoglio has been elected pope, the first ever from the Americas and the first from outside Europe in more than a millennium. He chose the name Pope Francis.
After announcing “Habemus Papum” — “We have a pope!” — a cardinal standing on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica on Wednesday revealed the identity of the new pontiff, using his Latin name. Bergoglio had reportedly finished second in the 2005 conclave that produced Benedict XVI — who last month became the first pope to resign in 600 years.The 76-year-old archbishop of Buenos Aires has spent nearly his entire career at home in Argentina, overseeing churches and shoe-leather priests.

(PHOTOS: Pope and Circumstance: the Road to the Papacy)

Chants of “Long live the pope!” arose from the throngs of faithful, many with tears in their eyes. Crowds went wild as the Vatican and Italian military bands marched through the square and up the steps of the basilica, followed by Swiss Guards in silver helmets and full regalia.

They played the introduction to the Vatican and Italian anthems and the crowd, which numbered at least 50,000, joined in, waving flags from countries around the world.

“I can’t explain how happy I am right down,” said Ben Canete, a 32-year-old Filipino, jumping up and down in excitement.

Elected on the fifth ballot, the pope was chosen in one of the fastest conclaves in years, remarkable given there was no clear front-runner going into the vote and that the church had been in turmoil following the upheaval unleashed by Pope Benedict XVI’s surprise resignation.

A winner must receive 77 votes, or two-thirds of the 115, to be named pope.

For comparison’s sake, Benedict was elected on the fourth ballot in 2005 — but he was the clear front-runner going into the vote. Pope John Paul II was elected on the eighth ballot in 1978 to become the first non-Italian pope in 455 years.

(WATCH: Popeology 101: How to Interpret the Sistine Chapel Results)

Patrizia Rizzo ran down the main boulevard to the piazza with her two children as soon as she heard the news on the car radio. “I parked the car … and dashed to the square, she said. “It’s so exciting, as Romans we had to come.”

The conclave played out against the backdrop of the first papal resignation in 600 years and revelations of mismanagement, petty bickering, infighting and corruption in the Holy See bureaucracy. Those revelations, exposed by the leaks of papal documents last year, had divided the College of Cardinals into camps seeking a radical reform of the Holy See’s governance and those defending the status quo.

The names mentioned most often as “papabile” — a cardinal who has the stuff of a pope — included Cardinal Angelo Scola, the archbishop of Milan, an intellect in the vein of Benedict but with a more outgoing personality, and Cardinal Marc Ouellet, the Canadian head of the Vatican’s important bishops’ office who is also scholarly but reserved like Benedict.

Brazilian Cardinal Odilo Scherer is liked by the Vatican bureaucracy but not by all of his countrymen. And Cardinal Peter Erdo of Hungary has the backing of European cardinals who have twice elected him as head of the European bishops’ conference.

On the more pastoral side is Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston, the favorite of the Italian press, and Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the back-slapping, outgoing archbishop of New York who has admitted himself that his Italian is pretty bad — a drawback for a job that is conducted almost exclusively in the language.

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi said it was a “good hypothesis” that the pope would be installed next Tuesday, on the feast of St. Joseph, patron saint of the universal church. The installation Mass is attended by heads of state from around the world, requiring at least a few days’ notice.

(LIST: Pope Watch: 5 Ways to Follow the Conclave)

Benedict would not attend, he said.

Thousands of people braved a chilly rain on Wednesday morning to watch the 6-foot- (2-meter-) high copper chimney on the chapel roof for the smoke signals telling them whether the cardinals had settled on a choice. Nuns recited the rosary, while children splashed in puddles.

Unlike the confusion that reigned during the 2005 conclave, the smoke this time around was clear: black during the first two sets of smoke signals, and then clearly white on Wednesday night — thanks to special smoke flares akin to those used in soccer matches or protests that were lit in the chapel ovens to accompany the smoke from the burned ballot papers.

The Vatican on Wednesday divulged the secret recipe used: potassium perchlorate, anthracene, which is a derivative of coal tar, and sulfur for the black smoke; potassium chlorate, lactose and a pine resin for the white smoke.

The chemicals were contained in five units of a cartridge that is placed inside the stove of the Sistine Chapel. When activated, the five blocks ignite one after another for about a minute apiece, creating the steady stream of smoke that accompanies the natural smoke from the burned ballot papers.

Despite the great plumes of smoke that poured out of the chimney, neither the Sistine frescoes nor the cardinals inside the chapel suffered any smoke damage, Lombardi said

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the making of a pope

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Philippines to continue UN help despite abductions

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippines remains committed to deploying troops in U.N. peacekeeping hotspots despite the brief hostage-taking of 21 Filipino soldiers, who were welcomed back to freedom in Jordan with a traditional military feast, military officials said Sunday. The unarmed Filipino peacekeepers, who were riding in trucks, were abducted after providing water and food to other troops on Wednesday in southern Syria near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights by one of the rebel groups fighting Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime. After negotiations, they were freed on Saturday on Jordan's border and taken to a hotel in Amman, Philippine officials said.
At the Amman hotel, the peacekeepers, who were treated well by the rebels, were welcomed with a "boodle fight" — a Philippine military mess-hall style of eating, where food is laid usually on banana leaves atop a long table and soldiers eat with their hands, said army Col. Roberto Arcan, who heads the military's peacekeeping operations center in Manila.
Arcan said he talked on the phone with one of the freed peacekeepers, army Maj. Dominador Valerio, who remained in high spirits despite the four-day ordeal. "Please tell my wife I'm OK," Arcan quoted Valerio as saying, adding he relayed the good news to the army officer's wife in the Philippines.
Prior to last week's hostage-taking, a Filipino army major and his driver was briefly held at a checkpoint in the Golan Heights by anti-Assad forces last January but were released after about four hours, Arcan told The Associated Press.
The freed peacekeepers from a 326-member Filipino contingent in the Golan Heights are part of a U.N. mission known as UNDOF that was set up to monitor a cease-fire in 1974, seven years after Israel captured the plateau and a year after it pushed back Syrian troops trying to recapture the territory.
The truce's stability has been shaken in recent months, as Syrian mortar shells have hit the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, sparking worries among Israeli officials that the violence may prompt UNDOF to end its mission.
On Friday, U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said "the mission in the Golan needs to review its security arrangements and it has been doing that."
Asked if the incident would prompt the Philippines to withdraw its peacekeeping personnel, military spokesman Col. Arnulfo Burgos said the Filipino deployments would continue although assessments would be made to better safeguard the peacekeepers in increasingly-hostile areas.
"This is a global commitment," Burgos said in a news conference in Manila.
More than 600 Philippine security personnel are deployed in nine U.N. peacekeeping areas worldwide, Arcan said.
President Benigno Aquino III said last week he has asked the military to assess whether large numbers of Filipino peacekeepers should be reduced to help address the country's growing security needs.
"There is a delicate balance," Aquino said. "All of these deployments have a vital function. We are part of a global community. If there's peace in the Middle East, it also helps us."
But he asked: "Can we afford to send this number of people?"

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Vatican conclave: Cardinals pray for spiritual guidance before choosing new pope

VATICAN CITY—Roman Catholic Cardinals prayed on Sunday for spiritual guidance ahead of a closed-door conclave to choose a new pope to lead the Church at one of the most difficult periods in its history.

Cardinals will hold a final pre-conclave meeting on Monday to discuss the state of their Church, left reeling by the abdication last month of Pope Benedict and struggling to deal with a string of sexual abuse and corruption scandals.

The 115 cardinals who will take part in the secret ballots, which start on March 12, fanned out around Rome on Sunday to hold myriad Masses, either in the quiet of private chapels or in the grandeur of Rome’s great cathedrals and basilicas.

Each cardinal is traditionally assigned to a church in the Italian capital and congregations swelled in parishes visited by those considered the most likely papal contenders—such as Cardinal Odilo Pedro Scherer of Sao Paulo, Brazil.

“We’re all preparing for the conclave because we need to make the right decision to decide who is going to be the new pope,” Scherer told a small Baroque church in the heart of Rome, crammed with well-wishers.

He was later driven away in a minivan with darkened windows, declining to speak to the waiting hoards of reporters—a taste of the pressures to come if he should become the first non-European to be elected pope in some 1,300 years.

Just up the road, another non-European touted as a possible candidate, U.S. Cardinal Sean O’Malley, also received star treatment as he arrived for Mass in ornate vestments.

“I say sincerely that we hope this is your last visit as cardinal,” said parish priest father Rocco Visca, prompting loud applause and cheers from the well-heeled congregation.

A coach load of faithful from northern Italy travelled down to Rome to hear Milan’s cardinal, Angelo Scola, give a sermon at the monumental Santi Apostoli church.

“Let us pray that the Holy Spirit gives the Church a man who can lead her in the footsteps of the great pontiffs of the past 150 years,” said Scola, seen as the leading Italian candidate.

Like fellow cardinals, he appeared eager not to draw too much attention to himself and exited quietly via a back door.

Some cardinals, such as Manila’s Luis Antonio Tagle, who is considered a long-shot because of his relatively young age, 55, kept an even lower profile, mostly staying inside the walls of seminaries or other religious institutions.

Open canvassing is frowned upon in the run-up to the conclave, with prelates aware of the Rome saying “he who enters the conclave a pope comes out a cardinal”.

Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said the so-called princes of the church had been in constant contact in recent days and had reached initial conclusions.

“They therefore feel ready to confront the decisive step of electing a new pope,” he told Vatican Radio.

The 115 cardinal electors under the age of 80 will enter the Sistine Chapel on Tuesday afternoon and hold one vote that evening. They will vote up to four times day thereafter until one of their number receives a two-thirds majority, or 77 votes.

If a pope is not elected in two or three days it means that cardinals are probably severely divided and might have to turn to a dark horse candidate to find consensus.

No conclave has lasted than more than five days in the past century. Pope Benedict was elected within barely 24 hours in 2005 after just four rounds of voting. But this time, no clear favourites have emerged to take the helm of the troubled Church.

Apart from Scola, Scherer and O’Malley, other potential candidates most mentioned are Canada’s Marc Ouellet, U.S. cardinal Timothy Dolan and Argentina’s Leonardo Sandri.

It was unclear how much the geographical distribution of the cardinals would weigh. Sixty cardinals come from Europe, including 28 Italians, while there are 19 from Latin America, 14 North Americans, 11 Africans, 10 Asians and one from Oceania.

The Italians held the papacy for 455 years before the 1978 election of Polish-born Pope John Paul.

Many of the Italian cardinals work within the Vatican bureaucracy, which has come under heavy criticism in recent years because of infighting and perceived incompetence.

Some Italian newspapers said many of the Italian prelates were rallying around Scherer, while many outsiders favoured Scola, believing he had the clout and knowledge needed to revitalise and reform the creaking Vatican government.

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