White smoke billowed from the Vatican's Sistine Chapel Wednesday, indicating the cardinals have selected a new pope after two days of voting.Cardinals have elected a successor to Benedict XVI, who stunned the Catholic world last month by becoming the first pope in 600 years to resign. Crowds packing St. Peter's Square were seen waving flags and were cheering the announcement as bells were ringing.
The new pope, who has yet to be identified, became the winner after receiving at least 77 votes, which is more than two thirds of the cardinals.
The new pope is expected to appear on the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica within an hour of the vote, after a church official announces "Habemus Papum" -- "We have a pope" -- and gives the name of the new pontiff in Latin.
Currently inside St. Peter's Basilica, the elected cardinal will have been asked "Do you accept your canonical election as Supreme Pontiff?"
After giving his approval, the new pope is then asked which name he would like to be called, and other cardinals will approach him to make acts of homage and obedience.
The new pope will also have to be fitted into new robes, and there will be some time taken for prayer and reflection.
Cardinal Protodeacon Jean-Louis Pierre Tauran, of France, will then step out on the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica and reveal the pope's identity to the world.
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 -- include 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 Associated Press contributed to this report.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/03/13/world-watches-as-cardinals-convene-for-2nd-day-papal-conclave/?test=latestnews#ixzz2NRmZ3S8d
Update:
Pope Francis I - Jorge Bergoglio
No comments:
Post a Comment