Silver Spring Church 'Surprised and Pleased' at Pope Francis

Hours of waiting and watching a local news channel's "smoke cam" payed off Wednesday afternoon for Rev. Msgr. K. Bartholomew Smith, pastor of Saint Bernadette Catholic Church in Silver Spring, and his staff. 

"Everybody was surprised and everybody was pleased," Smith said of the Vatican's announcement that Argentinian archbishop Jorge Bergoglio had been chosen to lead the world's 1.2 billion Catholics. 

"The fact that it's a Latin American is very exciting," Smith told Patch. "The fact that our new pope is really from out here, if you will, from a diocese in the Americas. His first language is Spanish—that's very exciting."

Bergoglio, a Jesuit, chose the name Pope Francis, after St. Francis of Assisi, a decision that Smith said was "absolutely shocking, for a Jesuit to choose the founder of a different religious order." It is the first time a pope has chosen the name Francis. 

Catholics around the world will be looking to Pope Francis for clues on how he wants to lead the church, Smith said. After his inaugural mass next week, the pope will likely give a series of homilies, or sermons on biblical scriptures, that bishops will pay attention to, according to Smith. 

Six months to a year from now, Catholics will look for an encyclical letter from Pope Francis, Smith said.

"That's his first, big deal document where he really says something he wants the whole church to hear him say, that he wants to influence how the church does things," Smith told Patch.