Argentine Catholics Overjoyed at 1st Latam Pope

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) – Latin Americans are reacting with joy to news of the first pope from the hemisphere.

Near the cathedral in Argentina’s capital, Martha Ruiz burst into tears of emotion at news that her cardinal Mario Bergoglio has been named pope.

She says the news “is incredible.” Bergoglio has taken the name Francis I.

At the St. Francis of Assisi church in the colonial Old San Juan district in Puerto Rico, church secretary Antonia Veloz exchanged jubilant high-fives with the priest.

Pope Francis has been known for years as a humble man who denied himself the luxuries that previous Buenos Aires cardinals enjoyed.

Known previously as Jorge Bergoglio, the 76-year-old often rode the bus to work, cooked his own meals and regularly visited the slums that ring Argentina’s capital. He considers social outreach, rather than doctrinal battles, to be the essential business of the church.

He has in the past accused fellow church leaders of hypocrisy and forgetting that Jesus Christ bathed lepers and ate with prostitutes.

In his first appearance in St. Peter’s Square as the new pope today, Francis wore a simple white robe.