There was white smoke over Rome after dark fell there, and bells were tolling.
This meant that after just a little more than a day, a new Pope had been chosen, on the fifth ballot.
This meant that after just a little more than a day, a new Pope had been chosen, on the fifth ballot.
After an hour of uncertainty, a French cardinal came out and announced, in Latin, the name this Pope was leaving behind: Jorge Maro Bergoglio of Argentina, the Archbishop of Buenos Aires and a Jesuit. He got to pick a new name; John Paul I, the Pope of thirty-three days, chose his as a symbol of combing the qualities of Paul VI and John XXII. So it might matter a good deal that Bergoglio chose Francis, evoking the saiint of Assisi and his commitment to the poor. He will be the first pope with this name. If that is a symbol that will have to be proven out, the selection of a Pope from Latin America is a more immediate one.
It affirms the Church's transformation, and may give it better footing in the world, if not a grasp of it.
It affirms the Church's transformation, and may give it better footing in the world, if not a grasp of it.
The white smoke, by the way, is from the burning of the ballots.
So is the black smoke, but different chemicals are shaken on top of each, as they are put in a special oven, in one of the gestures in which Vatican officials assume the aspect of alchemists. This morning, as the Times reported, gave out the recipe this morning: for white and a Pope, add potassium chlorate, milk sugar, and pine rosin. (Andy Borowitz, our satirical correspondent, came up with this headline: “Vatican Calls White Smoke a False Alarm: ’We Were Just Burning Documents’”)
So is the black smoke, but different chemicals are shaken on top of each, as they are put in a special oven, in one of the gestures in which Vatican officials assume the aspect of alchemists. This morning, as the Times reported, gave out the recipe this morning: for white and a Pope, add potassium chlorate, milk sugar, and pine rosin. (Andy Borowitz, our satirical correspondent, came up with this headline: “Vatican Calls White Smoke a False Alarm: ’We Were Just Burning Documents’”)
A half an hour after the smoke came out, the name still hadn’t leaked. People still repeated the names of the same candidates: Scola, Turkson, Scherer, Dolan, without knowing, and with almost no one expecting Bergoglio. The crowds in Saint Peter’s Square are shouting and dancing; they still are waving the flags of different contenders, Brazilian and Italian and American, too.
Maybe some were put in backpacks when Bergoglio came out, or tossed to the Vatican marching band that came out in the square to fill the ecclesiastical half-time, with guards in blue cloaks with metal helmets and musicians wearing hats with red and white feathers. When he began speaking, and told a joke about how far the cardinals had gone to look for him, they laughed. They even cheered and joined his prayer for Benedict. He asked the crowd to bless him—"pray in silence for me." He also said, “Let's pray for the world.”
Maybe some were put in backpacks when Bergoglio came out, or tossed to the Vatican marching band that came out in the square to fill the ecclesiastical half-time, with guards in blue cloaks with metal helmets and musicians wearing hats with red and white feathers. When he began speaking, and told a joke about how far the cardinals had gone to look for him, they laughed. They even cheered and joined his prayer for Benedict. He asked the crowd to bless him—"pray in silence for me." He also said, “Let's pray for the world.”
For more, here is Margaret Talbot on sexual-abuse scandals and the papacy; Alexander Stille on Benedict XVI’s legacy, and in conversation about his early retirement; John Cassidy on his disastrous influence; Naunihal Singh on Cardinal Peter Turkson; a slide show of the young men who became the last century’s Popes; and a look behind The New Yorker’s papal covers. I also looked yesterday at a Cold War fantasy of what a Pope should be.
Religion plays a great part in our lives, it gives us strenght, faith and joy.
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