A collection of our favourite mishaps and funnies on the Papal announcement this morning.

And the new Pope is…
As the new Pope was announced, Paul Collins told ABC News Breakfast that the Archbishop of Genoa was a new Pope. “The Italians will be rejoicing as the papacy comes back to Italy.” He also commented that it was good that the cardinals had elected a younger man. The ABC quickly cut back to the Sydney hosts who had the right name.

Collins made an easy slip. The Archbishop of Genoa’s name is Bagnasco. The new Pope’s name is Bergoglio. Easy to misread on a dark, windy night perched among the rooftop statues in the Vatican.

So close and yet so far…
Archbishop of Brisbane, Mark Coleridge on ABC Brisbane radio this morning:

“When the cardinal appeared on the balcony and made the announcement they give the Christian name before they give the surname, and of course when he said ‘George’ I thought, ‘the Archbishop of Sydney’s finally cracked it!’”

Worst question of the week (so far)…
ABC Breakfast to Brian Lucas (Secretary and official spokesperson for Australian Catholic ): “Is it a blow that this new Pope won’t support gay marriage and abortion?”

The headline perhaps they were looking for: Shock as Catholic Church elects Catholic Pope.

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Pope Francis I was elected this morning. Image source: Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne

Five things you should know about the new Pope

• Francis I, an Argentinian, is the first Latin American Pope and the first non-European elected for 1200 years. Latin America is the continent with the most Catholics.
• At 76, he is considered an old Pope. This came as a shock to commentators, including Brisbane Archbishop Coleridge, roped into a radio discussion about how fit the Pope looked: “when he appeared on the balcony he looked like a fit old man”. The oldest elected popes were Pope Celestine III (elected 1191) and Celestine V (elected 1294). Benedict XVI was 78 when elected.
• He’s a conservative Catholic who will hold the line on social issues like abortion and gay marriage.
• The new Pope has never lived in the Archiepiscopal Palace in Buenes Aires, preferring to live in a modest apartment and catch the bus to work.
• As a South American Catholic leader, Bergoglio rejected Liberation Theology (the idea that the church should not only be on the side of the poor but should lead the people in organised political action). 

Pope Francis I is the first Jesuit elected to be Pope. What is a Jesuit?

• Jesuits are members of the religious order ‘the Society of Jesus’.
• They are known for their concern for social justice.
• The Jesuits were key to the expansion of the Catholic Church in places like China and South America.
• Jesuits are sometimes colloquially referred to as “God’s Marines”, in reference to members’ willingness to accept orders anywhere in the world and live in extreme conditions.
• The Jesuits are the largest single religious order of priests and brothers in the Catholic Church

Australia’s first Jesuit Bishop of Port Pirie in South Australia, Greg O’Kelly, told ABC this morning that the Jesuits’ founder Saint Ignatius of Loyola never set out for his order to occupy high office: 

“It’s something really not in any of the traditions of the order.

“Ignatius [the founder of the Jesuits] didn’t even want his men to be bishops.

“And I’m sure the new Holy Father must be thinking exactly the same way – the humility of having to accept an office that in no way he would have aspired to.”