Francis – the 266th Pope –
(Thank you to Bruvver Eccles and Chalcedon for correcting my Latin)

The Catholic church has a new pope: Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio from Buenos Aires in Argentina, , the first ever to come from South America, who has taken the name Francis.

He was announced to the crowd waiting in St Peter’s Square from the vast balcony that runs across the front of St Peter’s basilica. His first words:

‘You know that the duty of the conclave was to provide Rome with a bishop. It looks as if my brothers the cardinals went to fetch him from the end of the world!’

He is the first non European Pope in over a thousand years. Here is one of his pronouncements.

“We live in the most unequal part of the world, which has grown the most yet reduced misery the least,” he was quoted as saying by the National Catholic Reporter at a gathering of Latin American bishops in 2007.

“The unjust distribution of goods persists, creating a situation of social sin that cries out to Heaven and limits the possibilities of a fuller life for so many of our brothers.”