As white smoke billowed from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City last month and a new pope was introduced to the world, millions of people scoured the Internet, eager for information that could provide insight into the makeup of the little-known Argentinian cardinal. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Phys.org
Getty Images
…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at AOL
On his first day as shepherd of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics, Pope Francis picked up his luggage at a Vatican hotel, personally thanked each member of the staff and even paid his own bill. Then, at his first Mass, he delivered a short, unscripted homily — in Italian, not the Latin of his predecessor — holding the cardinals who elected him responsible for keeping the church strong.
Pope for barely 12 hours, Francis brushed off years of tradition and formality Thursday with a remarkable break in style that sent a clear message that his papacy is poised to reject many of the trappings enjoyed by now-retired Benedict XVI.
That was hardly out of character for Francis. For years, as Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the Argentine pastor took the bus to work, kissed the feet of AIDS patients and prayed with former prostitutes, eschewing the luxurious residence that would have been his due as archbishop of Buenos Aires.
But now he is pope — the first from the New World and the first Jesuit — and his style both personal and liturgical is in a global spotlight.
On his first day, he couldn’t have signaled a greater contrast to Benedict, the German academic who was meek and generous in person but formal and traditional in public.
The differences played out Thursday in the Sistine Chapel as the 76-year-old Francis celebrated his first public Mass as pope.
Whereas Benedict read a three-page discourse in Latin, Francis had a far simpler message. Speaking off-the-cuff for 10 minutes in easy Italian, he said all Catholics must “build” the church and “walk” with the faith.
He urged priests to build their churches on solid foundations, warning: “What happens when children build sand castles on the beach? It all comes down.”
“If we don’t proclaim Jesus, we become a pitiful NGO, not the bride of the Lord,” he said.
“When we walk without the cross, and when we preach about Christ without the cross, we are not disciples of the Lord. We are mundane. We are bishops, priests, cardinals, popes, but we are not disciples of the Lord.”
The new style was evident even in Francis’ wardrobe. Rather …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
AP
…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at AOL
At gatherings of Latin American bishops, then-Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio was often a star speaker about economic inequities in a profit-driven world. He also has used the forums to warn fellow church leaders about drifting from core Catholic values and teachings.
The twin messages are now expected to frame the beginning of the papacy of Pope Francis: Reinforcing the Vatican’s views on issues such as birth control and women’s ordination that will disappoint reform-minded followers, yet showing an activist streak that could hearten others pushing for greater attention to problems that include poverty and international debt.
These broad ideological strokes — drawn clearly over decades in the Argentine church — will likely be accompanied by growing nuances and initiatives demanded by the modern papacy that requires diplomatic skill, managerial acumen and a degree of pastoral flair.
His emphasis on clerical simplicity and populism, including efforts to keep divorced Catholics and unmarried mothers in the church’s fold, could raise alarms among staunch conservatives about a reorientation of Vatican priorities after eight years of strict guidance under Benedict XVI, who spent most of his Vatican career as the main doctrinal enforcer.
Through lesser-known gestures and comments in the past, the first Latin American pontiff also has shown an inclination to expand interfaith outreach to Islam and Judaism, and efforts to further close the nearly 1,000-year estrangement with the Orthodox churches. The pope’s historical namesake, St. Francis of Assisi, is described in church lore as walking unarmed to meet an Islamic ruler during the 13th century Crusades in a gesture of respect and shared humanity.
In his first Mass on Thursday as pope, Francis reinforced his pastoral priorities and service during a brief homily in the Sistine Chapel that was simple and inclusive, calling on all Catholics to help “build” the church and “walk” with the faith. Without such collective spirit, he said the underpinnings grow weak.
“What happens when children build sand castles on the beach?” he told the congregation that included the cardinals who elected him. “It all comes down.”
The pope then showed a sterner side by citing the words of French writer Leon Bloy, an agnostic who experienced a strong religious conversion before his death in 1917: “He who doesn’t pray to the Lord prays to the devil.”
“To focus on the new pope only as a traditionalist is wrong, as is only …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
Three rounds of ballots had been cast with no winner, but it was becoming clear which way this conclave was headed.
When the cardinals broke for lunch, Sean O’Malley of Boston sat down next to his Argentine friend, Jorge Bergoglio.
“He seemed very weighed down by what was happening,” O’Malley said.
Hours later, the Buenos Aires archbishop would step before the frenzied masses packed into St. Peter’s Square as Francis, the first pope from the Americas.
Cardinals take an oath of secrecy when they enter a conclave, promising never to reveal what goes on inside. But as is customary, the cardinals involved share memories of their experience.
___
It began Tuesday afternoon with a procession.
Reciting a hypnotic Gregorian chant, the 115 princes of the church, dressed in red robes over white lace tunics, filed two by two into the frescoed masterpiece that is the Sistine Chapel and took their seats at four rows of tables. One used a wheelchair and was helped to his place by his colleagues.
Then each man moved to the front and took an oath not to reveal what was about to occur: “we promise and swear not to break this secret in any way, either during or after the election of the new pontiff.”
With a cry of “extra omnes” — “all out” — the massive double doors swung shut, the key was turned and the conclave was under way.
___
No matter how beautiful the chapel, Chicago Cardinal Francis George said, the acoustics aren’t great.
The presiding cardinal, Giovanni Battista Re, had to explain each step in the ritual twice, once to each side of the room.
Other than that, there was only silence.
“The conclave is a very prayerful experience,” O’Malley said. “It’s like a retreat.”
Each man wrote a few words in Latin …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
By Nadia Arumugam, Contributor
Almost every news report and piece of analysis I have read since late yesterday afternoon about the new Pope has made mention of his propensity for a simple life and his wealth of humility. Mere hours after his papal election, Pope Francis shunned the papal limousine and chose to ride back to Domus Sanctae Marthae, the hospitality residence on the edge of Vatican City where the cardinals were staying during the conclave, for the cardinals’ final communal meal. The New York Time notes how on Thursday after early morning prayers, the Pope checked out of the residence, picked up his baggage and paid the bill himself. But, what struck me most was that every report specifically mentioned that the former Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, an Argentine, would cook his own meals in his small apartment in downtown Buenos Aires. This got me thinking. Will Francis necessarily be thrust into a life of being waited upon hand and foot, a life in which a team of chefs would churn out Roman feasts of homemade pasta and other delectables? Will he even have the means to cook for himself anymore, should he want to? The menu in the lavish surroundings of Vatican City are not as indulgent as one might expect them to be, especially if the meals of the 115 participating cardinals during the papal conclave is anything to go by. According to the Italian newspaper, Corriere della Sera, nuns from the Sistine Chapel prepared “meals of soup, spaghetti, small meat kebabs and boiled vegetables,” similar to fare served in hospitals. “All of the cardinals consider these dishes as rather forgettable compared to the menus at the restaurants in Rome,” the paper noted. But there was good reason why the repasts were so austere; mealtimes during the conclave were intended solely to nourish and not to distract the cardinals from the task at hand; choosing the next pope. In fact, there was concern that especially enjoyable meals might even serve to prolong the voting process. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
Pope Francis has opened his pontificate with a visit to Rome‘s main basilica dedicated to the Virgin Mary, a day after cardinals elected him the first pope from the Americas in a bid to resurrect a Catholic Church in crisis.
Italy’s RAI state television said the former archbishop of Buenos Aires, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, entered the basilica through a side entrance Thursday morning just after 8 a.m. and left about 30 minutes later. He had told a crowd of some 100,000 people packed in a rain-soaked St. Peter’s Square just after his election that he intended to pray to the Madonna “that she may watch over all of Rome.”
He told cardinals he would also call on retired Pope Benedict XVI on Friday and celebrate an inaugural Mass in the Sistine Chapel.
Just after white smoke started billowing from a chimney above the Sistine Chapel in Rome, on the second day of a conclave to elect a successor to Benedict XVI, it was announced that Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, would be the new leader of the world’s 1.6 billion Catholics. Huge crowds gathered in St. Peter’s Square to hear the news, in Latin, as bells rang throughout the city and thousands of people cheered. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home
The pomp surrounding his selection was just the beginning of an exceptionally busy few days for Pope Francis. A look at the first night — and what comes after.
THE SELECTION
From the moment of uttering “I accept” in Latin, in front of his fellow cardinals in the Sistine Chapel, the job is his, and it starts instantly.
According to tradition, his first act is declaring his choice of name as the Roman Catholic church’s 266th pontiff. That done, he’s whisked off to the Room of Tears, just beyond the chapel to be dressed in papal white.
Since Monday, the day before the conclave began, three white robes — in small, medium and large to cover all the bases — had been hanging on a clothes rack in the room. Seven pairs of red shoes waited in white boxes to be tried on for size by the new pontiff.
Per tradition, outfitted in papal garb, the new pontiff heads back to the Sistine Chapel, where the other cardinals pledge obedience to the man they chose to lead the church.
NEXT STEP
Just before Benedict XVI left the papacy last month, to begin the first papal retirement in 600 years, he added another step in the ritual before a cardinal steps out onto the central loggia, or balcony, of St. Peter’s Basilica to announce the name of the new pope. The newly elected pontiff was to pause to pray in solitude in the Pauline Chapel, another magnificent chapel decorated by Michelangelo and smaller than the nearby Sistine Chapel.
GREET THE MASSES
Next up is greeting crowds in St. Peter’s Square.
“Brothers and sisters, good evening,” Francis said to wild cheers in his first public remarks as pontiff. “You know that the work of the conclave is to give a bishop to Rome. It seems as if my brother cardinals went to find him from the end of the earth. Thank you for the welcome.”
FIRST FULL DAY?
As the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, told reporters a few hours …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
With no pope, a sea gull is stealing the show at the papal conclave.
Smoke watching has become bird watching in St. Peter’s Square after a sea gull perched atop the chimney that belches out smoke from the Sistine Chapel to signal whether or not a pope has been elected.
From the chapel’s tiled roof, the gull had a commanding bird’s eye view Wednesday of the sea of pilgrims eagerly waiting in the rain for papal tidings. Black smoke means no pope yet; white means “Habemus Papum” — “We have a pope!”
The bird offered welcome comic relief.
Dublin tourist Harry Sheeran quipped that the gull was “nearer to heaven than we are.”
Minutes after being spotted, the bird inspired a slew of Twitter accounts.
Demonstrations took place across the United States and internationally to protest the male-only conclave to elect the next pope, MyFoxTampaBay.com reported.
Some members of St. Andrews UCC Church in Sarasota sent up a pink smoke signal Tuesday during a vigil. White smoke from the Sistine Chapel in Rome signals a new pope had been selected during the conclave.
The vigil was one of many held around the globe. There was a report of a fight outside the Vatican Tuesday when two female activists went topless and were dragged away from St. Peter’s Square.
The Sarasota group, for their part, gathered in a circle to pray, and they say their hope is for a more progressive pope.
“There’s one point plus billion Roman Catholics. 500 million women. All cultures, all languages, throughout the world living today, are not represented in the conclave. Not one woman,” said Katy Zatsick, with the Mary Mother of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community.
The Vatican is revealing what the smoke signals emerging from the Sistine Chapel chimney are made of, after the stir caused by how much more distinct the black smoke in this conclave has been compared to the past.
The Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said the black smoke that came Tuesday and Wednesday — indicating a pope had not been elected — was made by adding cartridges containing potassium perchlorate, anthracene (a component of coal tar), and sulfur to the burned ballots.
The white smoke signaling a pope has been elected is produced by potassium chlorate, lactose and chloroform resin.
The Vatican is burning the flares following confusion in past conclaves about smoke color. Lombardi said that neither the chapel frescoes nor the cardinals inside suffered from the smoke.
The papal conclave is steeped in mystery — and the church likes it that way. Elaborate ritual and veils of secrecy, after all, are fundamental to the papal mystique, seen as the glue the binds worshipers in faith.
But in this conclave, the church appears to be making some concessions to the instant clarity expected in the Internet era: Just look at the thick plumes of black smoke that poured from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel on Tuesday and Wednesday to tell the world that the votes had not yielded a winner.
It was a big contrast to conclaves past in which confusion has reigned over the smoke color, with pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square screaming: “It’s white! … no, no … it’s black!!”
The smoke ritual itself dates back more than a century. And, regardless of questions of color, the Vatican has no intention of changing the tradition now — saying the uncertainty is part of the beauty of the process.
“A little suspense is good for all of us,” said Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi. “Don’t expect Swiss-watch precision.”
Mystery is a big idea in the Catholic faith. Its deepest meaning is that parts of faith are unknowable through reason and intellect alone. Wafting incense, Gregorian chants, ringing bells and other grand rituals of the liturgy are seen as outward manifestation of this concept.
In the conclave, it’s the mystery of the Holy Spirit and not a political agenda that is supposed to guide the cardinals in their selection. (In reality, however, everybody knows that politics plays an important role).
Conclaves weren’t always this secret.
They were once public events witnessed by hundreds of ordinary people who would watch the voting a bit like one might a sporting event. And politics was much more overtly a factor than it is today: Until the 20th century, some European royalty could veto the choice of the cardinals.
Now super-secrecy prevails, with cellphones, computers and anything connecting the cardinal-electors to the outside world banned.
“Thank God there’s still all the good old-fashioned things, like burning the ballots and the chimney going up,” said Greg Burke, an ex-Fox News correspondent who is now a communications adviser to …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
By Polly Davis Doig 
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home
By The Huffington Post News Editors
With a puff of black smoke from the Sistine Chapel chimney on Wednesday morning in Rome, the Catholic Church’s College of Cardinals signaled they haven’t decided on the new pope after two rounds of voting on Wednesday, the second day of the papal conclave.
The smoke appeared at 6:39 a.m. EDT (11:39 a.m. CET).
The Church’s 115 cardinals will meet again Wednesday afternoon to vote on the new pope. A cardinal needs at least 77 votes to become pope. There will be up to four votes per day until a pope is elected.
The eyes of the world are focused on a thin chimney on top of the Sistine Chapel. Underneath, ensconced in the papal conclave, 115 cardinals are due to make their decision as to who will succeed Benedict XVI as Pope. And the answer to the all-important question comes in the form of a simple smoke signal – no tweets or digital communication allowed – but will it be white or black smoke? …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Phys.org
Cardinals are returning to the Sistine Chapel for a second day of voting to choose a new pope after their first ballot yielded no winner and a great plume of black smoke emerged from the Sistine Chapel chimney.
The schedule for Wednesday’s voting includes a brief prayer followed by two rounds of morning balloting from the 115 cardinals. If no one gets the necessary 77 votes, cardinals break for lunch and return for two more ballots in the afternoon.
The drama — with stage sets by Michelangelo and an outcome that is anyone’s guess — is playing out against the backdrop of the turmoil unleashed by Benedict XVI’s surprise resignation and the exposure of deep divisions among cardinals. As a result, many analysts predict a long conclave.
By The Huffington Post News Editors
As the 115 cardinal-electors of the Catholic Church are gathered in conclave, The Huffington Post is running a live stream of smoke appearances at the Sistine Chapel. If you’re waiting as breathlessly for white smoke as we are, you’ve come to the right place!
Depending on when the winning vote is taken, white smoke will arise from the Sistine Chapel at 10:30 a.m. CET (5:30 a.m. EDT / 2:30 a.m. PDT), noon CET (7 a.m. EDT / 4 a.m. PDT), 5:30 p.m. CET (12:30 p.m. EDT / 9:30 a.m. PDT) or 7 p.m. CET (2 p.m. EDT / 11 a.m. PDT). If no pope is elected, black smoke will arise from the chapel’s chimney at noon CET (7 a.m. EDT / 4 a.m. PDT) and 7 p.m. CET (2 p.m. EDT / 11 a.m. PDT). All times are estimates based on prior papal elections and predictions from the Vatican. Actual times may vary.
This page will be continuously updated with the latest smoke signals.
