Buenos Aires, Mar 17: Argentine Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected pope on Wednesday and chose the papal name Francis, becoming the first pontiff from the Americas and the first from outside Europe in more than a millennium.
Bergoglio, an austere Jesuit intellectual who modernised what had been one of the most conservative Roman Catholic churches in Latin America, has spent nearly his entire career at home in Argentina, overseeing many churches and priests.
The 76-year-old reportedly got the second-most votes after Joseph Ratzinger in the 2005 papal election, and he has long specialised in the kind of pastoral work that some say is an essential skill for the next pope.
