WATCH: Newly Elected Pope Makes First Appearance Before Vatican Crowd

On Tuesday afternoon, the 115 cardinals tasked with electing a new pope entered the Sistine Chapel in Rome, singing a Gregorian chant that asks the saints to help guide their voting for the successor to the recently-resigned Pope Benedict XVI. Each cardinal takes a vow of secrecy before placing their vote, written on a rectangular piece of paper. After the votes are counted, and the outcomes announced, the ballots are bound together and burned with a special chemical. A copper chimney atop the Sistine Chapel will then release puffs of smoke to inform the world that a new pope has been selected.

UPDATE: At around 2:30 p.m. ET Wednesday, the chimney released white smoke, signaling that a new pope has been elected. The new pontiff is about to give blessings from the balcony of the Sistine Chapel. The papal conclave selected Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, age 76, formerly Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina. He has taken on the regnal name Pope Francis I.

Watch video below, via CNN:

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