After white smoke rose out of the Sistine Chapel’s chimney in Vatican City, the bells from Roman Catholic churches around the world started tolling.
Church of the Little Flower Rev. Manuel F. Alvarez, better known as “Father Manny,” was with St. Theresa School students.
“There were about 30 1st-graders inside the classroom and they just went nuts when they saw the white smoke,” Alvarez said.
Pope Francis’s successor Cardinal Robert F. Prevost, of Chicago, secured at least 89 out of the 133 cardinals’ votes.
“It is a joyful day for the church,” Alvarez said.
There were 10 from the U.S., including Archbishop Timothy Dolan, of New York.
The students watched on television how the crowd in St. Peter’s Square waited for the new pope to make his first appearance from a red-draped balcony at St. Peter’s Basilica.
