Pope Francis

Habemus Papam! Whether or not you are Catholic, it is a historic day. The Catholic Church elected a new pope.

Pope Francis, the first Pope from Argentina and actually the first Pope ever from outside of Europe.

Pope Francis I appears on the central balcony

It is indeed a historic day!

What were most media outlets commenting on earlier today? Why, the Sistine Seagull of course:

seagull-vatican-chimney

(Business Insider)

image

(CTV)

This Seagull was perched atop the chimney which issues the smoke from the papal conclave vote burning, black smoke means no new pope and white smoke means a new pope has been elected.

The White Smoke which announced the new pope’s election earlier today:

20130314-VATICAN-slide-V8IV-articleLarge-v3

(New York Times)

There were actually a couple seagulls to perch on the chimney, and they are a common side around the Vatican. I guess it might be a bit boring to just watch and wait, but the gull was not that interesting. You can check out one of his many news story at CTV News.

The seagull also got its own Twitter account….yep, that happens these days. You can see it at SistineSeagull (warning: may contain offensive content).

If you would like to read a bit more about the new Pope, check out the National Catholic Reporter.