A new pope already! Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the archbishop of Buenos Aires, was elected on March 13, 2013. Lots of stories on Vatican News but, for the most part, we watched the coverage on CNN.
Pope Francis I, now Bishop of Rome, visited the papal basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore soon after his election. Bob and I visited the basilica on a choir tour in 1999. I returned later on my own for what turned out to be a private viewing of the famous mosaics, which I'd missed two decades earlier when I was in Italy with my mother.
It's awesome to remember the sights and smells (wax, incense, dust) of that lovely space.
