There’s white smoke coming out of the Sistine Chapel, meaning the cardinals have chosen the next pontiff. Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran will eventually appear on St. Peter’s Square balcony to make the announcement. When Benedict XVI was elected in 2005, about 45 minutes passed between the appearance of the white smoke and the appearance of the cardinal who introduced the new pope.
Update: The next pontiff will be Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, Archbishop of Buenos Aires. Pope Francis, as he will be named, will be the first person from the Americas and the first Jesuit Priest to be pope. He will also be the first non-European to lead the Catholic Church in a millennium. The Huffington Post says that he “never lived in the ornate church mansion in Buenos Aires, preferring a simple bed in a downtown room heated by a small stove on frigid weekends. For years, he took public transportation around the city, and cooked his own meals” …