Jorge Bergoglio, the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, has been elected pontiff on the fifth ballot on Wednesday following the papal conclave in Rome.
He will be known as Pope Francis I and is the 266th Bishop of Rome.
Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols, head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, said the election was a moment of "great joy".
The 76-year old is the first pontiff to come from Latin America and his election follows the retirement of Pope Benedict XVI last month.
"He will bring a new kind of style of to the Catholic Church," Cardinal Murphy O'Connor said. "His own simplicity of life will be a great example to the whole world."
The election of a Pope from Latin America, he added, reflected the fact that the Catholic Church "was a global Church in a way that it has never been before" and "this man understands that".
- BBC
0