美国有线新闻 CNN 2013-03-19

 Our other new world leader is the chief of state, for Vatican City, you probably know him better by a different title, Pope, the leader the world's 1.2 billion Catholics, as we told you yesterday. There is a new Pope, Pope Francis, we'll get back to that name in a second, but before he took it, he was cardinal¹ Jorge Bogoglio. Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1936 before he became a priest, Bogoglio studied to be a chemist, he was ordained² in 1969, became a cardinal in 2001, he was supposedly the runner up to become Pope in 2005. This year, he was one of the oldest papal candidates. He chose the name of Francis in honor of St. Francis of Assisi. A catholic who was famous for his work with the poor.

The Vatican experts said the name choice is very significant, he said it shows the new Pope is focused on rebuilding the Catholic Church. During this mass service yesterday, Pope Francis talked about moving the Catholic Church forward. He's already made history, he is the first South American Pope. Tom Foreman looks at the numbers involved in his election.

To understand just how astounding³ this election is, you have to consider the collision that occured between the 115 cardinal electors in this room and 1.2 billion catholics all over the planet. Look at where they are, if you go out to places like Oceania and Asia, out there you'll get relatively⁴ small numbers, 9 million in Oceania, you move to Asia, you get about 130 million, over the Africa, 185 million. Then Europe, with 285 million, that has always been the place where Popes came from. But look at what has changed. Here is North America, United States, Canada, we're talking about here, with 85 million catholics, and then comes the power house, all of Latin America with 501 million catholics, that's almost half of the world's catholic population. And bear in mind, over here, North America, one out of three catholic says he is Hispanic, so you can see the tremendous power here. If they were in democracy, no question, this is kind of Pope would be elected. But it's not democracy, so look at what happened in this room, that's so astonishing.

Considering Italy for a moment, this is one country with just under 56 million catholics, compared that to Latin America, that I mentioned before, a whole region with 501 million catholics. But now looked at the cardinals⁵ who were in this room to vote on all of this. Italy, as small as it is, had 28 cardinals voting in this room, whereas Latin America as huge as it is, only had 19, only two of those from Argentina. The only way this election happened was for more peope in this side to finally say, the world really is changing for Catholic Church after 2000 years, it really is changing and the church has to answer to it, and this Pope is the result.

1 cardinal   

n.(天主教的)红衣主教；adj.首要的，基本的

参考例句：

• This is a matter of cardinal significance.这是非常重要的事。
• The Cardinal coloured with vexation. 红衣主教感到恼火，脸涨得通红。

2 ordained   

v.任命（某人）为牧师( ordain的过去式和过去分词 )；授予（某人）圣职；（上帝、法律等）命令；判定

参考例句：

• He was ordained in 1984. 他在一九八四年被任命为牧师。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He was ordained priest. 他被任命为牧师。 来自辞典例句

3 astounding   

adj.使人震惊的vt.使震惊，使大吃一惊astound的现在分词)

参考例句：

• There was an astounding 20% increase in sales. 销售量惊人地增加了20%。
• The Chairman's remarks were so astounding that the audience listened to him with bated breath. 主席说的话令人吃惊，所以听众都屏息听他说。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

5 cardinals   

红衣主教( cardinal的名词复数 )； 红衣凤头鸟（见于北美，雄鸟为鲜红色）； 基数

参考例句：

• cardinals in scarlet robes 身披红袍的枢机主教
• A conclave of cardinals was held to elect the new Pope. 红衣主教团举行了秘密会议来选举新教皇。