HABEMUS PAPAM

It's official: "Habemus Papam!" - "We have a pope!". White smoke billowed out of the Sistene Chapel chimney early this afternoon, and shortly after, our new pope was announced:

Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the archbishop of Buenos Aires will forever be known as Pope Francis. Pope Francis is both the first Jesuit and the first Latin American Supreme Pontiff.

His opening words to the Church were ones of humility and prayer. First praying for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, then asking for the people gather to pray for him before blessing all those listening (in St. Peter's Square and around the world).

THANKS FOR PLAYING

If you are one of the over 5,600 people who played and learned along with us during Fantasy Conclave – thank you so much! We had a great time putting together this project and thanks to your help, we reached way more people than we ever thought possible.

Though Fantasy Conclave is over, there's still several opportunities for you to continue to learn about and share your Catholic faith – keep reading to find out how.

Want to know the final results of all the votes? You can find all the stats over on the eCatholic blog.

KEEP EVANGELIZING

Pope Paul VI explained that the Church "exists in order to evangelize". Evangelization is the primary reason for her existence! It's not just one the things that the Church should do, it is THE thing she MUST do. Fantasy Conclave was created with that in mind: we wanted to make an easy way for you to share about the Church with your friends (what could be easier than inviting them to join a contest where the winner gets over $1,200 in prizes?).

For most Catholics, evangelization is a scary thing: a) We don't know much about what it means; b) We don't understand why we should do it; and c) We don't know how to evangelize.

There's a great eBook by Michael Marchand that answers all those questions and more. But the best part is that it's short and easy to read.

READ THE EMAILS

Everyday during Fantasy Conclave, we sent out an email with a papal fact or story. And even though Fantasy Conclave is over, you can still read through them and learn about the papacy and the conclave process:

OTHER CATHOLIC CONTENT WORTH READING

Looking for something else to read, check out some of these blog articles: