Pope Francis waves to the crowd from the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican after being voted as the 266th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church.
Word travels fast about a new Pope when at a Catholic church.
I was at a meeting at Church of the Madalene in Tulsa when news broke of
white smoke coming from the papal conclave in Vatican City.
People in various meetings sought out televisions and shared smartphones to see the new leader of the Roman Catholic Church.
A few had magazine articles with biographies of the front-runners.
When the announcement was made in Latin, the only word we understood was "Francisco."
We couldn't find that name in our cheat sheets of top candidates.
It took awhile for Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina to come out onto the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica.
It was then we understood he was taking the name of Pope Francis, after St. Francis of Assisi - the patron saint of Italy.
He is the first Pope to assume that name.
Some of the more mature women in the group giggled about him being Francis the First.
"It'll take awhile for me to get that out of my head," one woman said.
The joke was beyond me.
"Oh, you're a young one," she said.
Thrilled to be called young at age 41, I asked what they found funny.
"When I was getting married everyone wanted either Chantilly or
Francis I silver," she said. "Francis the First was very ornate and really hard to monogram."
The women went down memory lane about wedding traditions from more than 50 years ago.
They starting finding online photos of Francis I flatware to show what they were talking about.
Discussion came back around the new Pope, noticing quickly his age of 76.
"Wow, that's older than me," one woman said.
Another woman had a Pope app on her tablet, seeking a wireless connection to get faster information.
People were reading aloud from smartphones as details emerged.
It took four ballots to select a pontiff, and Pope Francis I was reportedly second to Benedict XVI at the last conclave.
He was born in Buenos Aires, son of a Italian immigrant father who worked on the railroads and one of five siblings.
He has a chemistry degree and one lung, due to an infection as a teenager.
Known as a compassionate conservative, he is expected to promote more front-line evangelism by priests.
The
National Catholic Reporter states he is considered an intellectual who is "low-key and close to the people."
He was known as "Father Jorge" in his home city and preferred simple living.
The new Pope chose to live in an apartment rather than the archbishop's palace, took the bus instead of a chauffeured limousine and cooked his own meals
Pope Francis is the first Jesuit, the first South American and the first non-European to lead the church in the modern era.
"I just knew he would be the next Pope," one woman said.
"How did you know that? He wasn't mentioned much before," a person asked.
"It's just time we get someone from that part of the country," the woman replied.
As people started drifting away, the sentiments were of hope and a new day for the church.
