catholic church in our modern world. that's the statement from the president, president obama, on his holiness, pope francis i, becoming the new pope. the election of the pope came as the president was meeting with house republicans up on capitol hill. cnn's dana bash reports that an aide handed the president a note with the news and then the president read that note to the group and there was applause. someone then yelled out, does this mean that the white house tours are open? and the president responded, and i'm quoting him now, vatican tours are. later the president spoke about the moment. >> i made the announcement we saw smoke but i actually had not seen the official announcement of name so we look forward to hearing about it and i'm sure it's going to be -- >> exciting moment. obviously carlos lopes of cnn