Agenzia Fides

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Argentine, 76, a Jesuit, is the 266th Pope of the Catholic Church. He is the first Pope to be called Francis and he is the first South American in the history of the Church. The white smoke that announced to the world his election came at the fifth ballot, on the second day of the Conclave.
"It seems that my brother Cardinals have gone to the ends of the earth to get one... " are the first words of the newly elected Pope Francis in his greeting addressed to the crowd gathered in St. Peter's Square.
After the prayer of the Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory be to the Father, Pope Francis said: "And now, we take up this journey: Bishop and people. This journey of the Church of Rome, which presides in charity over all the Churches. A journey of fraternity, of love, of trust among us."
Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, S.J., Archbishop of Buenos Aires (Argentina), was born in Buenos Aires on December 17, 1936. He studied and graduated as a chemical engineer, but then chose priesthood. On 11 March 1958, he entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus, he studied humanities in Chile and in 1963, returning to Buenos Aires, he obtained a degree in philosophy at the Faculty of Philosophy of the College San Jose, in San Miguel. On 20 May 1992, John Paul II appointed him Titular Bishop of Auca and Auxiliary of Buenos Aires. On 3 June 1997 he was appointed Coadjutor Archbishop of Buenos Aires, on February 28, 1998 Archbishop of Buenos Aires for succession, on the death of Cardinal Quarracino. From November 2005 to November 2011 he was President of the Episcopal Conference of Argentina. He was created and proclaimed a Cardinal in the consistory of 21 February by John Paul II in 2001, of the Title of St. Robert Bellarmine. He is a member of the Congregations: for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments; for the Clergy; for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and the Societies of Apostolic Life; of the Pontifical Council for the Family; of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America. (CE) (Agenzia Fides 14/03/2013)