Jorge Mario Bergoglio, an Argentinian cardinal, was elected Pope
Francis I today at the Vatican, becoming the first Jesuit pontiff and
the first from the Americas.
Bergoglio, 76, was the archbishop of Buenos Aires. He is the
Argentine-born son of an Italian railway worker. Described as a
compassionate conservative, he came in second in the 2005 balloting that
elected Benedict XVI. He is said to prize simplicity and humility and
is expected to encourage priests to do shoe-leather evangelism.