World

Photo: The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

People pray inside the Metropolitan Cathedral in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Wednesday, March 13, 2013.  (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)

Latin Americans reacted with joy, bursting into tears and cheers on Wednesday at news that an Argentine cardinal has become the first pope from the hemisphere.

"It's incredible!" said Martha Ruiz, 60, who was weeping tears of emotion after learning that the cardinal she knew as Jorge Mario Bergoglio will now be Pope Francis.

She said she had been in many meetings with the cardinal and said, "He is a man who transmits great serenity."

Cars honked their horns as the news spread and television announcers screamed with elation and surprise and Catholics began flooding toward the cathedral, where Ana Maria Perez and a few dozen other women had been waiting for the announcement.

"He is going to be the pope of the street," she said, referring to Bergoglio's habit of taking the subways alongside working class Argentines.

There was excitement as well elsewhere.

At the St. Francis of Assisi church in the colonial Old San Juan district in Puerto Rico, church secretary Antonia Veloz exchanged jubilant high-fives with Jose Antonio Cruz, a Franciscan friar.

Cruz said he personally favoured the Brazilian candidate, but was pleased with the outcome, saying the new pope would help revitalize the church.

"It's a huge gift for all of Latin America. We waited 20 centuries. It was worth the wait," said Cruz, wearing the brown cassock tied with a rope that is the signature of the Franciscan order. "Everyone from Canada down to Patagonia is going to feel blessed. This is an event."