VATICAN CITY: Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina was elected pope on Wednesday to lead the Catholics, a surprise choice that reflects the shifting demographics of the Roman Catholic faith.
Bergoglio, 76, chose the name of Pope Francis I for his pontificate and was greeted by thousands of cheering faithful as he stepped out on a balcony overlooking St. Peter’s Square to be presented to the world for the first time as pontiff.
The new pope, of Italian descent, inherits from his German predecessor a church that’s been rocked by sex-abuse scandals amid a waning profile in an increasingly secular West.
But his biggest challenge is to restore the reputation of the millennia-old institution and attract believers to a faith outstripped by Islam in terms of global numbers.
There are around 1.67 billion Muslims across the globe, the second largest religion after Christianity. But the number of catholics, whom the Pope will lead, has been dwindling at 1.2 billion.
But more significantly, Islam is the fastest growing religion, at least the data in America and Britain shows.
The U.S. Religion Census that was released in 2012 shows that from the year 2000 to the year 2010, the number of Muslims living inside the United States increased by about 1 million to 2.6 million – a stunning increase of 66.7 percent.
In Britain, the census data shows that the number of Christians in England and Wales declined by 11% (4.1 million) during the past decade, from 37.3 million in 2001 to 33.2 million in 2011.
However, during the same period, the Muslim population increased by 80%.
There are many factors for this including a growing conversion rate.
Smoke
Cardinals elected Bergoglio on just the second day of a secret conclave to find a successor to Pope Benedict, who abdicated unexpectedly last month.
Earlier, white smoke poured from the roof of the Sistine Chapel and the bells of St. Peter’s Basilica pealed, signalling that cardinals had chosen a new pope to lead the troubled Roman Catholic Church after only five ballots.
Earlier, black smoke had risen after the morning session to signal that a pope was yet to be elected.
But how does the smoke change the color? Read Here
(with inputs from Bloomberg and Reuters)
