This story was printed from channelnewsasia.com
Title : New Pope elected, Vatican rejoices
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Date : 20 April 2005 0010 hrs (SST)
URL : http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/143442/1/.html
VATICAN CITY : The Roman Catholic Church elected its first new Pope of the third millennium Tuesday as bells pealed and thick white smoke billowed out of a Vatican chimney, with his identity to be announced within minutes.
Tens of thousands of people on Saint Peter's Square roared and applauded as white smoke -- the traditional sign that a Pope has been elected -- emerged from a thin copper chimney atop the Sistine Chapel just before 6:00 pm (1600 GMT).
After initially hesitating when the plumes first appeared grey, the crowd surged toward the balcony of St Peter's basilica already hung with curtains in readiness for the new Pope's first public appearance.
As the bells pealed, many in the ecstatic crowd chanted "habemus papam" (we have a Pope).
But there was no word on his identity, as the Vatican has said the name of John Paul II's successor would be announced 45 minutes after his election.
The election by a two-third majority came in a fourth round of voting that begun when the 115 cardinals sequestered themselves into the Sistine Chapel late Monday for their conclave.
Whoever it is, the 265th pontiff in the Church's 2,000-year history has the heavy burden of guiding its 1.1 billion followers into a new era fraught with moral dilemmas and dissension over a host of issues ranging from emptying pews to contraception and celibacy.
John Paul II, in rewriting the rules for the election, wrote in 1996 that his successor should not refuse that burden.
"I also ask the one who is elected not to refuse, for fear of its weight, the office to which he has been called but to submit humbly to the design of the divine will," he wrote in the Apostolic Constitution.
He added: "God who imposes the burden will sustain him with his hand, so that he will be able to bear it. In conferring the heavy task upon him, God will also help him to accomplish it and, in giving him the dignity, he will grant him the strength not to be overwhelmed by the weight of his office."
Having given his assent, a new Pope is asked to choose the name by which he wants to be known in history.
Some cardinals may have already given that question some thought.
John Paul II chose his name out of deference to his immediate predecessor, John Paul I, who reigned for just a month in 1978 and who had chosen that name in tribute to Popes John XXXIII and Paul VI.
The new pontiff is then fitted into his robes -- traditionally, three sizes are prepared.
A short while later, the traditional announcement is made, in Latin, from the balcony of St Peter's basilica, ending with the words "habemus papam!" -- "we have a Pope!"
The new Pope has a difficult task filling the void left by John Paul II -- the third longest-reigning pontiff in the Church's history, who died April 2 aged 84 -- and also dealing with the complex problems that piled up unresolved under the last pontificate.
He left behind a legacy as a champion of human dignity, democracy and world peace but also as a strong advocate of conservative values that did not always chime with the Catholic rank-and-file and many clerics.
John Paul II's unique stamp on the papacy earned him the sobriquet of the "people's Pope" due to his ability to connect with people of every faith, both in person -- he travelled to a record 129 nations -- and through masterly use of the media.
His death sparked a huge outpouring of public grief as millions of pilgrims packed Rome and 200 state leaders and other dignitaries attended his funeral, watched by many tens of millions more around the world.
Many of the mourners called for his swift canonization as a saint, an issue likely to be one of the first on the new Pope's desk. - AFP / ct
Obituary: Pope John Paul II (18 May 1920 - 2 April 2005)>>>