Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio elected New Pope

White smoke emerges from the chimney on the roof of the Sistine Chapel to signify to the world that a new pope has been chosen. Photograph: Gregorio Borgia/AP

The Roman Catholic church has a new pope. White smoke flowed from the chimney above the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican shortly after 6pm on Wednesday, signalling that one of the candidates for the pontificate had obtained the necessary two-thirds majority for election.As is customary, the identity of the new pope was not immediately made known. And the crowd in St Peter's Square was waiting expectantly for him to appear on the huge balcony that runs across the front of St Peter's basilica.

 Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina was elected in a surprise choice to be the new leader of the troubled Roman Catholic Church on Wednesday, and said he would take the name Francis I.

Pope Francis, 76, appeared on the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica just over an hour after white smoke poured from a chimney on the roof of the Sistine Chapel to signal he had been chosen to lead the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics.
The choice of Bergoglio was announced by French cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran with the Latin words "Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum. Habemus Papam" ("I announce to you a great joy. We have a pope")
Francis becomes the 266th pontiff in the Church's 2,000-year history at a time of great crisis and difficulty. Although a conservative he is seen as a reformer and was not among the small group of frontrunners identified before the election.