White smoke billowed out of the country’s most popular chimney Thursday as the college of cardinals elected a new bishop.
The new pope did quickly come, and his fresh catholic name will be announced. The ancient ceremony holds the eyes of the world.
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Light SMOKE!
A bishop has been chosen! photograph. twitter.com/Nn5wj6n1Su
— Townhall.com ( @townhallcom ) May 8, 2025
While progressives favored the late Pope Francis’s protégés, like Pietro Parolin of Italy ( Francis’s right hand at the Vatican ) and Luis Antonio Tagle of the Philippines, conservatives hoped for a more traditional pope, like Robert Sarah of Guinea.
While many tried to claim that Francis was a technocrat and an attentive priest, the reality is that he prioritized leftist politicians over religious theology and philosophy, fractured the Church, scandalized also non-Catholics, and significantly offended Israeli Jews.  ,
The conference simply began on Wednesday, making it a brief conference, with just two days of election and consideration from the cardinals, most of whom were appointed by the late Pope Francis.
Catholics and even many non-Catholics await the name of the new pope, as the white smoke is greeted by a cheering crowd in St. Peter’s Square.
” There was a deep sense that in Pope Benedict, they had an ally, particularly for the old Latin Mass”, stated university religion professor Sarah Riccardi-Swartz. ” And with Pope Francis, that seemed to go away. That was a point of not just contention but real sorrow for a lot of traditionalists”.
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The next pope inherits a church facing many crises, both internal and external, political and religious, including a dearth of vocations, the ongoing sex abuse scandal, doctrinal splits within the church, multiple global wars, and heavy persecution of Christians in numerous countries. Hopefully, he will be a holy and wise man capable of handling all of these serious challenges.
This is a developing story and will be updated when we learn the name of the new pope.  ,
