Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina elected Pope

Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires has been elected Pope, becoming the first non-European to lead the Roman Catholic Church. He will be known as Pope Francis I.

After a short, two-day conclave, Francis was elected to succeed Pope Benedict XVI, who resigned last month. When white smoke finally emerged from the Sistine Chapel tonight in the Vatican, the crowd went wild and waited over an hour for Francis to be introduced.

According to NBC News, Francis, 76, was born in Argentina to an Italian father. He was reportedly second after the 2005 conclave that elected Benedict. He is also a Jesuit and asked the people to pray for him.

“As you know, the duty of the conclave was to appoint a bishop of Rome. It seems to me that my brother cardinals have chosen one who is from far away, but here I am,” he said, reports CNN. “I would like to thank you for your embrace, also to ... the bishops, thank you very much. First and foremost, I would like to pray for our emeritus pope, Benedict XVI. Let us pray all of us together … so that he's blessed by the lord and guarded.”

As CBS News noted, the election showed the Church realizing that the Latin American Catholic population is growing faster than in any other part of the world.