After a full day of meetings and voting, the Catholic Church has finally announced its new leader.
The new leader of the Roman Catholic Church is Pope Francis, formerly known as Jorge Mario Bergoglio. This marks the first non-European leader of the church in over 1,200 years and the first Latin American pope ever.
Pope Francis is a 76-year-old man from Argentina. He was the former archbishop of Buenos Aires which is a city loaded with Catholics. Bergoglio was also famous for his work with the Argentinian poor population.
Before selecting Bergoglio as the new pope, rumors flew around the world about who would be the next leader of the church. It was rumored that the church could possibly see its first African-American pope. Another rumor was that the church could see its first American pope.
However, all questions were answered today as white smoke rose from Saint Peter’s Basilica signaling that a new pope had been selected.
In his first time addressing the public as the leader of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis seemed very humble. He was very short and asked for prayer from all followers. Pope Francis ended his time with the public by saying, “Good night and have a good rest.”
And rest well the Catholic Church will. They now know who their leader is and many of the followers are excited about this groundbreaking selection of the new pope.