The College of Cardinals has chosen the new successor to St. Peter in The Vatican. As of this writing the name has not been announced but live updates are being shown streaming here on the Vatican YouTube channel. Watch this space for an update as soon as we have it.
*Update*: Changed live stream link to go directly to the Vatican’s own live stream.
*Update 2*: The Vatican’s own YouTube channel appears overloaded for some. Here’s a Live Stream from The Guardian as an alternative if you’re having trouble.
*Update 3: As of 3:13pm Eastern time, the announcement is being made by Cardinal Protodeacon Jean-Louis Pierre Tauran. The new Pope chosen is Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires–the first Pope in history from the Americas! He is also the first Jesuit pope in history. Interestingly, while Tauran was born in and currently serves the Church in Argentina, his family is of Italian descent, which indicates that to some extent the Italian cardinals got their way while those who wanted a non-European Pope also got their way.
*Update 4: The new Pope has taken the name Francis. He is the first Pope so named. So now we have it: Pope Francis I, SJ. That’s history in many areas at once.
There will doubtless be much more commentary on all this from multiple other sources, probably even some here on The Moderate Voice.
Dean Esmay is the author of Methuselah’s Daughter. He has contributed to Dean’s World, Huffington Post, A Voice for Men, Pajamas Media. Neither left nor right wing, neither libertarian nor socialist.