Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was on Tuesday elected the new Pope.

After white smoke billowed from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel to indicate that a new Pope has been elected at the secret conclave and Cardinal Jorge Medina Estevez of Chile announced Habemus Papam [We have a new Pope], Ratzinger delivered his first papal blessing.

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He said: "Dear brothers and sisters, after the great Pope John Paul II, the cardinals have elected me - a simple, humble worker in the vineyard of the Lord. The fact that the Lord can work and act even with insufficient means consoles me, and above all I entrust myself to your prayers."