Breaking News: Habeunt Papam, Apparently (with Updates)

News media are reporting white smoke from the papal conclave, but to my knowledge, no announcement yet of who has been elected.


Mark Donoghue tweets:

Mia Farrow tweets:

Bob Shine tweets:

Nicholas Kristof tweets:

Joshua Holland tweets:

Think Progress tweets:

WonderCafe tweets:

Rachel Donadio tweets:

Jason Pollock tweets:

Katie Jacobs Stanton tweets:

Claire Bangasser on her Facebook feed (hilariously) on how they're drawing out the announcement:

And Matthew Butler, also at Facebook, and equally wry:

And here we go: doors to balcony opening and crowd screaming.

And so he did take the name Francis (Cardinal Jorge Maria Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, Argentina). First Jesuit pope and first American one, as is being reported now.

They must now have the slippers working, since he has just emerged onto the balcony. I sense that the crowds are a bit more muted than they'd have been if some other (and predictable) candidates had been chosen.  

I do find it interesting that a Jesuit chose Francis as his papal name. I'm not a Vatican-watcher and can't say anything substantive about the conclave's choice, but at the least, it wasn't in line with many predictions of those who claim to have inside knowledge.

I'll give him a chance. I don't have the baggage I had from the moment I saw Ratzinger appear on the balcony, due to what he had done all during John Paul II's papal reign, especially to theologians and to liberation theology, in particular. 

We'll see.