Now that a Pope has been elected, what could this mean for the Catholic Church and it's image.
We sent our Nick Perreault to find out and he spoke with a historian who says it will be interesting to see how Pope Francis serves the people.
"There is a certain amount of pride that this evokes," said MSU History and Global Studies Professor Edward Murphy.
It's the first time in approximately 1000 years, the Pope, now Pope Francis isn't from Europe.
"That is an effort I think on part of the church to reach out and have more of a global reach," Murphy said.
Murphy says the move is geared toward a community that needs to come back into the fold.
"Over the past 30, 40 years a lot people in Latin America have left the Catholic church and this is clearly an effort to reach out to those people that they lost," Professor Murphy said.
But professor Murphy says some may have doubts about whether 76 year old Pope will get the job done based on his experience in Argentina.
"There was military dictatorship from 1976 to 83 and some 30,000 people were killed during that time, and he didn't speak against many of the abuses that took place during that time."
And professor Murphy wonders where pope Francis will come down with big issues looming.
"If he is to be a successful Pope there are issues he is going to have to deal with, both the questions about human rights and some of these questions about sexual abuse and in that respect. I think he could potentially be very important at least for dialog to emerge," Murphy said.
With hopes that now white smoke has risen, so will the image of the church under new leadership.
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