VATICAN CITY—It took Jorge Mario Bergoglio four minutes to convince fellow cardinals he was their leader. 
 
 Enlarge Image Close Associated Press Cardinal Bergoglio, right, with Canada's Cardinal Ouellet on March 6. 
 
 Speaking in the Paul VI grand hall of the Vatican, the Argentine cardinal warned the Catholic Church against focusing too much on matters close to home—advice that came against the backdrop of a papacy that had been consumed by infighting among Vatican officials, a dwindling flock in Europe and secular trends in the West. 
 
 The 76-year-old Father Jorge, as he is known back home, said Roman Catholicism needed to shift its focus outward, to the world beyond Rome—rather than being "self-referential," he said. Its core mission was humility, dignity and justice. It should help the poor. 
 
 It was a week before the secret conclave to elect the new pontiff would begin. But the speech sowed the seeds of one of Catholicism's boldest moves—the election of a pope from the New World, a man likely to steer the church's focus toward social justice and the problems of the world's periphery, rather than on the intrigue and controversy of its central administration. 
 
 What's News: The Vatican speaks out about allegations against Pope Francis. Inventors rushing to get patent applications filed before new changes go into effect. Carnival Corp announces plans to spend $800 million to get its fleet in ship shape. Photo: AP 
 
 This account, based on interviews with four cardinals, lifts the curtain on the dynamic that led the church's highest officials to shun the European basin from which Catholicism has drawn most of its leaders. Just before his speech, at a dinner of English-speaking cardinals, the future pope's name had come up over a meal of soup and wine but hadn't generated a buzz. "The speech was decisive," said one voting European cardinal. 
 
 "He spoke of the need for catechesis and the need to address the poor…the question of justice and the dignity of the human person," said a voting U.S. cardinal. 
 
 The call to project the church outward, not inward, propelled the Argentine prelate into contention in the first round of voting with two of Catholicism's most prominent cardinals. 
 
 Enlarge Image Close Reuters A puff of smoke announced the Argentinian's selection as pope. 
 
 The other two—Cardinal Angelo Scola of Milan and Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet, head of the Vatican's office for appointing bishops—were longtime acolytes of Benedict XVI, giving them what many cardinals thought was an inside track to the papacy. By the fifth and decisive round, Cardinal Bergoglio had surpassed both. 
 
 The election of Cardinal Bergoglio, known now as Pope Francis, doesn't mean the church will change its doctrine. Pope Francis is expected to uphold church teachings, ranging from its opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage to its requirement of priestly celibacy. But he is likely to create a new narrative for the church, one less focused on the inner workings of the Vatican and more on social justice. 
 
 "Sometimes when you're dealing with a crisis, you kick the ball in a different direction. And that's what this pope has done. It's to say: What I stand for is a particular gospel way of life and witness," British Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, archbishop emeritus of Westminster, said in an interview. 
 
 Benedict's resignation on Feb. 28 opened the door to a flurry of unusually frank discussions among cardinals in the week that followed. Unlike the conclave that followed Pope John Paul II's death in 2005, cardinals didn't spend time in mourning. Instead, their deliberations could turn immediately to the biggest challenges facing the church—the rise of secular trends, management of the scandal-plagued Vatican bank and the need to address a shift Catholicism's demographics toward the southern hemisphere. 
 
 After hours, the cardinals met in private to home in on candidates. On March 5, after they had spent the day in the talks known as the General Congregation, a group of them from around the English-speaking world gathered inside North American College, a school nestled on a hill above the Vatican, where U.S. bishops send seminarians to train for the priesthood. A banquet table was set up beneath a chandelier inside the Red Room, which is trimmed with red marble pilasters and oil canvases depicting cardinals. 
 
 Sitting down to saucers of soup, the cardinals discussed "five or six" names of papal candidates, said one U.S. cardinal. That roster included two of the names that were most frequently being mentioned by the media: Cardinal Ouellet, a former Archbishop of Quebec, and Cardinal Scola of Milan. The future pope's name was also dropped into the conversation, the U.S. cardinal said. 
 
 A spokesman for Cardinal Scola declined to comment. Reached by phone Friday evening, Cardinal Ouellet said, "I have nothing to say about the conclave. I have a very serious oath about what was going on inside." A Vatican spokesman declined to comment on conclave proceedings. 
 
 Cardinal O'Connor, who was among the invitees of the dinner, declined to say who first mentioned Cardinal Bergoglio as a papal candidate. But he added: "His name began to be thrown into the ring: Maybe this is the man?" 
 
 Many cardinals initially believed Cardinal Bergoglio, 76, was probably too old to become pope, especially coming in the wake of Benedict XVI, who cited his age and frailty as reasons for his resignation. "We came into this whole process thinking: The next pope has to be vigorous and therefore probably younger. So there you have a man who isn't young. He's 76 years old. The question is does he still have vigor?" said Cardinal Francis George of Chicago. 
 
 American cardinals are heavily courted for support in papal elections. As a potential bloc of votes inside the conclave, the Americans are "very powerful" because they are outnumbered only by cardinals from Italy, Cardinal O'Connor said. 
 
 American cardinals also run archdioceses that are among the biggest donors to the Catholic church and to the papacy. Another asset that would have worked in the U.S. cardinals' favor is a lack of unity among Italians that has manifested itself in past conclaves, said the U.S. cardinal. 
 
 But as evening wore on, and glasses of red and white wine began to flow, it became clear that this time, the Americans, too, fostered diverging views. "I thought the American cardinals were quite divided about where to go," said Cardinal O'Connor, who didn't enter the conclave because he is above the voting-age limit of 80 years. 
 
 "Americans are particularly rugged individualists. We get along, but we all have our own point of view," the U.S. cardinal said. 
 
 Cardinal George of Chicago said he couldn't remember the evening but said it was "entirely possible" that Cardinal Bergoglio came up in conversations over a meal at the college. "Every night it's something different. So there are different conversations going on," the cardinal said in an interview in the Red Room on Friday. He declined to discuss the conclave. 
 
 Later that week, it was Cardinal Bergoglio's time to address his peers. Unlike the speeches before him, the Argentine kept his address short—less than four minutes, several cardinals said. That got him noticed. 
 
 It hadn't been the first time that Cardinal Bergoglio had mentioned the inward-looking nature of the church. 
 
 "We have to avoid the spiritual sickness of self-referential church," the cardinal said in an interview to an Italian journalist last year. "It's true that when you get out into the street, as happens to every man and woman, there can be accidents. However, if the church remains closed in on itself, self-referential, it gets old. Between a church that suffers accidents in the street, and a church that's sick because it's self-referential, I have no doubts about preferring the former." 
 
 "He speaks in a very straightforward way. And so perhaps—more than the content—it was simply a reminder that here is someone who has authenticity in such a way that he's a wonderful witness to the discipleship," said Cardinal George about the speech. 
 
 On March 12, the cardinals filed into the Sistine Chapel and cut themselves from outside communication. In the first ballot that night, the cardinals who garnered significant votes were Cardinals Bergoglio, Scola and Ouellet. Cardinal Sean O'Malley of Boston also drew votes. Black smoke rose from the chapel's smokestack, signifying no choice had been made, and the cardinals adjourned for the day. 
 
 On Wednesday, Cardinal Scola's support began to erode. Though Italian, the Milan cardinal was struggling to draw support from his countrymen, one European cardinal said. That left Italian cardinals divided among a range of candidates, with some starting to coalesce around Cardinal Bergoglio. 
 
 Members of another potential voting bloc—"Ratzingerian" cardinals who are close to Benedict XVI—were also divided between cardinals Scola and Ouellet, both of whom have deep ties with the former pope and are considered theological and intellectual admirers of his. 
 
 By the final round of voting, the opposition blocs had dissolved, with many of its voters joining into to push Cardinal Bergoglio past the 77-vote threshold needed to become pope. 
 
 Corrections & Amplifications 
 
 An earlier version of this article misspelled the name of British Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor as Cormack Murphy O'Connor. 
 
 Write to Stacy Meichtry at stacy.meichtry@wsj.com 
 
 A version of this article appeared March 16, 2013, on page A6 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: With a Speech, Cardinal Set Path to Papacy. ||||| Story highlights Pope Francis will deliver his first Angelus blessing on Sunday 
 
 Francis tells journalists he chose his name as pope to reflect a concern for the poor 
 
 He will meet with Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI in a week, the Vatican says 
 
 Since his election, he has faced questions over his past in Argentina 
 
 The new pope gave an insight into his choice of the name Francis in an audience with journalists Saturday -- and said how he wished for a church that was both poor and "for the poor." 
 
 His words came in his first meeting with the media since he became the only Jesuit and first Latin American to be chosen as leader of the Roman Catholic Church three days ago. 
 
 Francis, who before he became pope was known as Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio , said a fellow cardinal from Brazil had told him "don't forget the poor" as the votes stacked up in his favor. 
 
 This thought stuck in his mind, Francis said, as it became clear that he had won the two-thirds majority that meant he was the new pontiff. 
 
 "Right away, with regard to the poor, I thought of St. Francis of Assisi , then I thought of war," he told the assembled journalists. "Francis loved peace and that is how the name came to me." 
 
 He had also thought of St. Francis of Assisi's concern for the natural environment, he said, and how he was a "poor man, a simple man, as we would like a poor church, for the poor." 
 
 St. Francis of Assisi, who gave up his own wealth and prestige, is revered among Catholics for his work with the poor. 
 
 The journalists included Vatican communications staff and several Latin American reporters, mostly from Argentina. 
 
 Francis began by thanking them all for their efforts to share with the world the momentous events for the church in the days since Benedict announced his unexpected resignation. 
 
 Blessing for all 
 
 He drew a parallel between the work of the media and that of the church, saying both worked to communicate "truth, beauty and goodness." 
 
 JUST WATCHED Hopes for young pope dashed Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Hopes for young pope dashed 02:24 
 
 JUST WATCHED What's ahead: Pope Francis' first days Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH What's ahead: Pope Francis' first days 02:07 
 
 JUST WATCHED Pope to cardinals: Pass wisdom to young Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Pope to cardinals: Pass wisdom to young 04:28 
 
 The media also had an important role to play in explaining the way the church works, he said, which is made more complicated by the role played by faith rather than more worldly or political concerns. 
 
 The new pope concluded the audience -- which did not include questions -- with a blessing for all the journalists present and their families. 
 
 He acknowledged that not all those present were Catholic, saying he gave them his blessing "knowing that you are of different religions, because all of you are children of God." 
 
 As a cardinal in Buenos Aires, Francis developed close relations with Argentina's Jewish community. 
 
 He wrote to the chief rabbi in Rome this week, saying he strongly hoped to "contribute to the progress of the relations that have existed between Jews and Catholics" since the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, which redrew the church's relations with the modern world, "in a spirit of renewed collaboration." 
 
 On Sunday, Francis will celebrate Mass in Vatican City and for the first time deliver the Angelus, or noon blessing, from his papal apartment window to the crowds gathered below in St. Peter's Square. 
 
 The official Mass to inaugurate Francis as the bishop of Rome -- and leader of the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics -- takes place Tuesday. 
 
 Reforms to come? 
 
 Francis has already struck observers with his simple and humble style since being elected to the papacy -- and prompted speculation that he may bring in wider changes. 
 
 The Vatican said Saturday that he's decided that the heads of the various Vatican offices will keep their jobs for now, but he's not making any definitive appointments. 
 
 "It's customary for new popes to swiftly reconfirm the department heads who lose their positions when the previous pontificate ends, and then take his time about bringing in his team," said Allen. 
 
 "The fact that Francis has not followed that path may suggest that significant personnel moves will come sooner rather than later." 
 
 Francis wants "a certain period for reflection, prayer and dialogue before [making] any definitive nomination or confirmation," the Vatican statement said. 
 
 Military dictatorship 
 
 The pope's media audience came only a day after the Vatican sought to damp down reports over his conduct during Argentina's so-called Dirty War, amid accusations that he could have done more to protect two Jesuit priests who were kidnapped. 
 
 The Vatican rejected the allegations as defamatory and untrue in a news conference Friday. 
 
 "This was never a concrete or credible accusation in his regard. He was questioned by an Argentinian court as someone aware of the situation but never as a defendant. He has, in documented form, denied any accusations," said the Rev. Federico Lombardi, a Vatican spokesman. 
 
 "Instead, there have been many declarations demonstrating how much Bergoglio did to protect many persons at the time of the military dictatorship," he said. 
 
 Francis will meet with his predecessor, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, in a week, the Vatican said Saturday. 
 
 The March 23 meeting will take place at the papal summer residence, Castel Gandolfo, where Benedict has been staying since his historic resignation. 
 
 It comes amid concern in some quarters that the presence of a living former pope might lead to a conflict of interests or influence. 
 
 The Vatican has said that Benedict will not seek to interfere in the running of the church, but will focus on study and prayer.
– Pope Francis met with the international media today and shed more light on why he picked the name Francis. As the votes were being counted and it became clear that Jorge Bergoglio would be the next pope, a fellow cardinal from Brazil turned to him and said, "Don't forget the poor," he recalled. "Right away, with regard to the poor, I thought of St. Francis of Assisi, then I thought of war," he said, reports CNN. "Francis loved peace and that is how the name came to me." St. Francis, he added, was a "poor man, a simple man," and the new pope said he wanted a church "for the poor." The Wall Street Journal, meanwhile, speaks to four cardinals who say a four-minute speech by Bergoglio in the runup to voting lifted him from a so-so candidate into front-runner status. "He spoke of the need for catechesis and the need to address the poor," says one, along with "the question of justice and the dignity of the human person." Bergoglio told his fellow cardinals that the church needed to stop navel-gazing at the Vatican and start focusing on social justice in the world outside Rome. Click for more on how his election came to be.