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About 480 million of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics live in Latin America. No one from the region had ever been chosen to lead the church. By electing him, the cardinals sent a strong message about where the future of the church may lie.
Jorge Mario Bergoglio - who will be now known as Pope Francis (the 266th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church) - has spent nearly his entire career at home in Argentina, overseeing churches and shoe-leather priests.
The name the new Pope has taken is reminiscent of St Francis of Assisi, the 13th Century Italian reformer and patron saint of animals, who lived in poverty.
Speaking in Italian as he blessed the faithful, Francis asked the audience to “pray for me, and we’ll see each other soon.”
“Good night, and have a good rest,” he concluded, in a grandfatherly, almost casual tone.
Business Standard shares some key information of the new catholic pope.
1) He is a theological conservative with a strong social conscience, known for his negotiating skills as well as a readiness to challenge powerful interests.
2) Francis, 76, was born in Buenos Aires on December 17, 1936. The son of an Italian immigrant, he trained as a chemist before deciding to become a priest.
3) He is a modest man from a middle-class family who declined the archbishop's luxurious residence to live in a simple apartment and travel by bus.
4) He was also the main candidate against Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in the 2005 conclave that elected the German to become Pope Benedict, backed by moderate cardinals looking for an alternative to the then Vatican doctrinal chief.
5) "He shares the view that the Church should have a missionary role, that gets out to meet people, that is active ... a Church that does not so much regulate the faith as promote and facilitate it," said Francesca Ambrogetti, who co-authored a biography of Bergoglio after carrying out a series of interviews with him over three years.
6) Bergoglio is known to be conservative on spiritual issues. He opposes abortion, same-sex marriage and supports celibacy. He also displayed sympathy for HIV-AIDS victims.
7) He spends his weekend in solitude in his apartment outside Buenos Aires and is a member of well-known Argentine soccer club San Lorenzo.
8) In 1992, Pope John Paul II named him assistant bishop in Buenos Aires, then made him archbishop five years later. He served on a number of Vatican commissions and in 2005 is widely believed to have come in second to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger — now the pope emeritus — to succeed John Paul II.
9) According to Argentina's state news agency Telam, the new pope has just one lung, but a Vatican spokesman said he was unable to confirm whether that report was true. The 76-year-old needed to have his other lung removed as a teenager because of an infection, according to media reports.
10) He often rode the bus to work, cooked his own meals and regularly visited the slums that ring Argentina's capital. He considers social outreach, rather than doctrinal battles, to be the main business of the church.
