The Catholic Church has a new pope. Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, 76, of Buenos Aires, Argentina, was named Pontiff by the College of Cardinals on Wednesday. He will take the name Francis I. The announcement was made after white smoke came out of the small chimney set up on the roof of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City, which lets the world know there is a new pope.

"He also was supposedly the runner up to {Joseph} Cardinal Ratzinger in the last conclave in 2005," says David Cloutier, a professor of theology at Mount Saint Mary's University in Emmitsburg, and an expert on the papacy. Ratzinger was elected pope, and he took the name of Benedict XVI. He recently stepped down as Pontiff.

Cloutier says Bergoglio also has a number of firsts. "He is the first pope from outside of Europe. The first Latin American Pope. He is the first Jesuit Pope," he says.

Latin America has the largest concentration of the world's Catholics.

During his time in Argentina, Cloutier says Bergoglio was recognized as a friend of the poor. "He has done extraordinary outreach to the poor in his archdiocese in Buenos Aires. And did not live in the mansion that the archbishop usually lives in. But rather chose to live in a small, one-bedroom apartment and take the bus to work," Cloutier says.

Bergoglio is also the first pope to take the name Francis, a reference to Francis of Assisi. "Perhaps the most beloved Saint certainly in Italy, but possibly around the world," he says. "A Saint known, of course, for his radical poverty."

Cloutier says it's interesting that the new pope, whose a Jesuit, took the name of Francis. The Jesuits and the Franciscans have a rivalry within the Catholic Church. "Choosing the name Francis was a statement by this Jesuit not to make too much out of a Jesuit being chosen as pope," he says.

Pope Francis I takes over the Catholic Church in a time of challenge as it tries to clean up the corruption in the Vatican bureaucracy, and revive Catholicism in a secular world. He also must deal with the sex abuse scandals involving priests and other clergy.  But Cloutier says Pope Francis I has management skills and experience in dealing with the Vatican bureaucracy.

As Cardinal, Jorge Bergoglio was know for modernizing the Catholic Church in Argentina, which was one of the most conservative in Latin America. But Cloutier doesn't expect a lot of change under the papacy of Francis I. "I see him as very much a choice of continuity," he says.