New Pope Francis: Local Priest Prayed for 'Man of Humility'

Bells rang for seven minutes at St. Joseph the Worker Church in Orefield when the white smoke poured out of the Vatican indicating a new pope had been chosen.

Actually, the Rev. Kevin Gualano pressed three buttons on a carillon, but the effect was the same -- it sounded as if bells were pealing in jubilation.

"Hopefully, it didn't wake any babies up," said Monsignor Robert Wargo, who was at the church.

The new pope is an Argentinian cardinal, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 76, who has chosen the name Pope Francis.

Gualano, who watched the live coverage on the Vatican website, said he felt God had answered his prayers when Bergoglio was selected.

"I asked God to send us a man of humilty, somebody the world didn't know so we could start fresh," Gualano said.

Wargo said he was "surprised but very pleased" with the selection of Pope Francis.

"He seems to be a very holy man, a very godly man, who seems to know what he wants to do with the church," Wargo said.

Wargo said it was a "a real plus" to choose a Spanish-speaker from Latin America to lead the Catholic Church. Bergoglio is the first Jesuit—and the first from Latin America—to be named pope.

"There are so many millions of Catholics in Latin America. I think it's time for their voice to be heard. I think he lived through a lot of conflict in the church and within his own country and would be able to meet those same challenges throughout the world," Wargo said.

Wargo said he would like to see the Catholic Church reach out more to young people and "to be able to overcome the hurt that people have suffered through over the last 10 years with sex abuse in the church and the world. I would love to see honesty and transparency," Wargo said.

While some might question the pope's age, Wargo said, he believes it says something positive. With age comes wisdom and a certain fearlessness, he said.

"He has a wealth of experience... He has to be able make some tough decisions for the church, for the world, and not worry about that and pass that on to another Holy Father when he steps down or when God calls him home. He'll do things he wants to do because he knows he has a limited timespan of five to 10 years."

Donna Spatz, of North Whitehall, said she was thrilled with the selection, especially since St. Francis is among her favorite saints.

"I have six St. Francis statues in my yard," she said.

Tania Kulischenko, a teacher at St. Thomas More School in Salisbury Township, admired the new pope's humility.

"Since he's lived his life so humbly, he'll pay more attention to lifting up the poor," she said. "Even his choice of name, Francis, is humble. It's great for the poor and I hope he champions them."

Janet Plangemann, a teacher at St. Thomas More, said she hopes the new pope will restructure the Vatican Bank and "be openly welcoming to other faiths to help keep the dialogue going."

There are 270,000 Catholics across the Allentown Diocese, including 67,000 in Lehigh County and 76,000 in Northampton County.

Bergoglio has spent nearly his entire career in Argentina, and according to published reports, he has lived modestly, taking the bus to work, cooking his own meals and opting to live in an apartment.  

ABC News Online reported that he is considered a champion of social justice in his country. He also is a conservative, strongly opposing abortion, same-sex marriage and contraception, ABC News reported.  

Bergoglio stepped out onto the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome at 3:22 p.m. Wednesday (8:22 p.m in Rome) to cheering crowds. Just a little over an hour earlier, white smoke had arisen from atop the Sistine Chapel, indicating that the Roman Catholic cardinals had elected a new pope.

Bergoglio succeeds Pope Benedict XVI, who resigned Feb. 28, the first pope to do so in 600 years. He cited advanced age.