The bells in the Duomo in Barga started ringing this evening to sound out across the whole valley that the new Pope had been elected.
White smoke flowed from the chimney above the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican shortly after 7pm , 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 a new pope had taken over the spiritual leadership of the world’s 1.2 billion baptised Catholics.
Jesuit Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires has been named as Pope Francis I
The archbishop of Buenos Aires is a Jesuit intellectual who travels by bus and has a practical approach to poverty: when he was appointed a cardinal, Bergoglio persuaded hundreds of Argentinians not to fly to Rome to celebrate with him but instead to give the money they would have spent on plane tickets to the poor. He was a fierce opponent of Argentina’s decision to legalise gay marriage in 2010, arguing children need to have the right to be raised and educated by a father and a mother. He was created a cardinal by John Paul II on 21 February 2001.- John Hooper – The Guardian
