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Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina has been named new
Bergolio, who is of Italian descent, is currently the Archbishop of Buenos Aires. His new name will be Pope Francis.
The announcement is definitely a surprise, last we saw he was getting odds of 33/1 on Paddy Power.
For one thing, he's 76 years old — considerably older than many of the other candidates, and many had thought that the papal conclave would favor a younger candidate given Pope Benedict XVI's early resignation.
However, he is the first pope from the "New World," and the first from Latin America — an important change given that 40 percent of Catholics currently live there. Bergoglio has spent almost his entire life in Argentina, the AP notes.
Some other interesting aspects of Pope Francis:
- He only has one lung.
- In 2010 he called gay adoption a form of discrimination against children.
- Nevertheless, he seems to be a great tactical choice for the Catholic Church.
- He is believed to have finished second, behind Joseph Ratzinger, in the 2005 papal conclave.
- Our of our favorite gurus on Catholicism, former BI writer Michael Brendan Dougherty, is worried about the choice for a number of reasons.
- He has four brothers and sisters.
- Here's what Bloomberg thinks his economic policies should be.
- He is known for his personal simplicity because he was "a Prince of the Church who chose to live in a simple apartment rather than the archbishop's palace, who gave up his chauffeured limousine in favor of taking the bus to work, and who cooked his own meals," according to John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter.
- The former Jesuit archbishop of Buenos Aires Argentina's brutal post-1976 military dictatorship.
- He'll be riding around in a tricked-out Mercedes Mercedes M-Class Popemobile.
Here's video of the moment it was announced:
Here's the moment Bergoglio emerged as Pope Francis: