![Pope Francis I has called on all Catholics to "confess Christ crucified."](http://cdn2-b.examiner.com/sites/default/files/styles/image_content_width/hash/15/ff/15ff7ecebdfe48e67f63fd80b1db8c34.jpg?itok=zOq_WvyD "Pope Francis I has called on all Catholics to "confess Christ crucified."")
Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the Archbishop Emeritus of Buenos Aires, was yesterday elected the 265th Successor of Peter, the Bishop of Rome, Supreme Pontiff, Pastor of the Universal Church, and Servant of the Servants of God. Colloquially, all of that means that Bergoglio was elected pope yesterday, and he took the name Francis. He told the assembled throngs in St. Peter's Square that the cardinals "went to the ends of the earth to find me."
We've learned much about our new Holy Father since the announcement, including that Blessed John Paul II once offered him a permanent post in the Roman Curia that he turned down, saying "I would die there," which means that he is almost certainly going to be keen on curial reform. He lived a life of simplicity in Argentina, refusing the well-appointed episcopal residence in favor of a simple and sparsely-furnished apartment, one in which he cared for a fellow Jesuit priest with a disability in addition to carrying on his busy schedule of duties as a cardinal-archbishop of a major Catholic see.
In the Mass to close the conclave in the Sistine Chapel earlier today, His Holiness said that true confession of Jesus Christ and him crucified is necessary for every Catholic. “We can build so many things but if we don’t confess Jesus Christ, then something is wrong. We will become a pitiful NGO, but not the Church, spouse of Christ,” Francis said in his homily at the Mass in the building where he was elected.
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