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Maria Elena Bergoglio was in her home west of Buenos Aires last week when she heard her brother Jorge Mario Bergoglio was the new pope.
Confessing to being a little selfish she admitted to praying during the 2005 conclave that he not to be elected, she told CNN, Monday.
Last week, soon after the white smoke billowed out from the Sistine Chapel chimney, she heard her brother’s voice crackling through the telephone line.
“I almost died,” she said.
“The telephone rang and my son answered. I heard him say, ‘ooooh, God.'”
She said Jorge told her not to worry and reassured her all was well.
“I told him I wanted to hug him,” she said.
Then, the pope told her to pass along his warm greetings to the rest of the family.
“He said, ‘I cannot call everyone. We are a very big family, so please send them my love. Because if I call everyone, it will empty the Vatican coffers,’ ” Bergoglio said.
“I think that’s why he became pope … if he had to be firm in something, he was,” she said. “But he was always like that, with a sense of humor.”
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