On Wednesday, the Cardinals of the Catholic church elected Jorge Mario Borgeglio of Argentina to be the new pope. He’s the first pope from South America, and the first from the Jesuit order of priests. He’s also the first to choose the name Francis.
We spent part of Wednesday and Thursay at Fr. Tolton Catholic High School in Columbia to find out what some of Columbia's young Catholics think of the new pope.
Like many other people, Corrine Hubbard admires his humility.
"I'm just glad we've got someone in there who's really humble. I've heard he takes the bus every day to work, and he cooks his own meals, and he helps out with AIDS patients, AIDS people, so I think he definitely knows what he's doing."
Emily Bryant isn’t Catholic, but she was intrigued by the significance of the pope.
"It's helped me to like, learn more like why it's so important to them, and like it really means a lot – and he's the leader of the church, and it's something that . . . it's worth celebrating."
And Joe Powers has high hopes for what the new pope will do.
"I think that sometimes Catholics, I think other people build a wall between them because of our beliefs on, you know, morals, and those kind of things. I hope that he can kind of break down those walls, and build up better relationships with non-Catholics."
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This story was produced in partnership with Columbia Faith & Values. Listen for our updates on 91.3 FM at 8:34 a.m. every Saturday. Get local religion news delivered to your inbox once a week by signing up for the Columbia Faith and Values newsletter.
