Los Angeles Catholics weigh in on new Pope

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Catholics in Downtown Los Angeles are pouring out into the hot afternoon sun after a service at Our Lady of Angels Cathedral.

And though the first ballots cast by the college of cardinals failed to yield a decision, Catholic Angelenos spent their afternoon discussing the person they'd like to see lead some1.2 billion Roman Catholics in the world. 

This includes Father Angel Castro, the priest presiding over today's mass. He would like to see a Pope who embodies “holiness, compassion and mercy for all our sins. We have been doing this for 2,000 years, we need to do it better and little by little," he said.

But Father Casto is confident in the cardinals' decision.

"I strongly believe that god will provide the Shepard that's needed in this day and age and time at the church,"  he said.

Parishioner Lorie Le already knows who she'd like to see.

"I hope nobody will get mad at me but Cardinal Tagle will be on the throne. God Bless him. He's very good and he's young because they're looking for [someone] a little younger," she said.  Cardinal Tagle is 55 years-old is and Filipino.

Some are looking to break tradition like Jackie Lebuff who said she hopes to see, “A female...The world has changed, we are all God's children, and we need to behave like that." 

Tom Savage has attended Catholic School since he was a boy.  "We need Pope to lead a spiritual revolution which we haven't had for a long time with since many Catholics have turned their backs on the church."

Losing faith is something Eric Canoza is seeing from his St. Lorenzo Parish in Walnut.  

"People that may not have the drive to serve, to love and to cherish god as a whole. So I'm looking for a Pope that can touch those people’s hearts," he said.

Pierre Consebito thinks the 266th Pope should be more like the very first, "Pope Peter was simple, he even denied Christ three times, so basically it's humanity,"  he said.

In the meantime, these Catholics, as well as the billions of believers and spectators around the world will be waiting in anticipation for the white smoke above the Sistine Chapel that would signal a new successor to the Catholic throne.