After a relatively brief papal conclave, white smoke emerged from the Sistine Chapel, indicating that a successor to Pope Francis had been elected.
Twelve years after the Roman Catholic Church elected its first-ever South American pope, the church elected its first American pope on the fourth ballot of the 2025 papal conclave.
Robert Prevost, a Chicago native with extensive Midwest ties and a graduate of the Catholic Theological Union, makes history as the first North American, Peruvian citizen and American citizen to be elected pope.
Now Pope Leo XIV, the 69-year-old begins his papacy after overcoming the taboo against a possible American pope, given the geopolitical power already wielded by the United States in the secular sphere.
Leo, however, was seemingly eligible because he’s also a Peruvian citizen and lived for years in Peru, first as a missionary and then as an archbishop.
Leo was twice elected prior general, or top leader, of the Augustinians, the 13th century religious order founded by St. Augustine. Francis clearly had an eye on him for years, moving him from the Augustinian leadership back to Peru in 2014 to serve as the administrator and later archbishop of Chiclayo.
He remained in that position, acquiring Peruvian citizenship in 2015, until Francis brought him to Rome in 2023 to assume the presidency of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America. In that job he would have kept in regular contact with the Catholic hierarchy in the part of the world that counts the most Catholics.
Ever since arriving in Rome, Leo has kept a low public profile, but he was well known to the men who count.
Significantly, he presided over one of the most revolutionary reforms Francis made, when he added three women to the voting bloc that decides which bishop nominations to forward to the pope. In early 2025, Francis again showed his esteem by appointing Leo to the most senior rank of cardinals.
Who was the last Pope Leo?
The last pope to take the name Leo was Leo XIII, an Italian who led the church from 1878 to 1903.
That Leo softened the church’s confrontational stance toward modernity, especially science and politics and laid the foundation for modern Catholic social thought, most famously with his 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum, which addressed workers’ rights and capitalism.
How did Catholics in St. Peter’s Square react to the historic moment?
The crowd in St. Peter’s Square erupted in cheers when white smoke poured out of the Sistine Chapel on the second day of the conclave. Priests made the sign of the cross and nuns wept as the crowd shouted “Viva il papa!”
Waving flags from around the world, tens of thousands of people waited to learn who had won and were shocked when an hour later, the senior cardinal deacon appeared on the loggia and said “Habemus Papam!” and announced the winner was Leo.
He spoke to the crowd in Italian and Spanish, but not English.
Earlier Thursday, large school groups joined the mix of humanity awaiting the outcome in St. Peter’s Square. They blended in with people participating in preplanned Holy Year pilgrimages and journalists from around the world who have descended on Rome to document the election.
“The wait is marvelous!” said Priscilla Parlante, a Roman.
Pedro Deget, 22, a finance student from Argentina, said he and his family visited Rome during the Argentine pope’s pontificate and were hoping for a new pope in Francis’ image.
“Francis did well in opening the church to the outside world, but on other fronts maybe he didn’t do enough. We’ll see if the next one will be able to do more,” Deget said from the piazza.
The Rev. Jan Dominik Bogataj, a Slovene Franciscan friar, was more critical of Francis. He said if he were in the Sistine Chapel, he’d be voting for Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem who is on many papal contender lists.
“He has clear ideas, not much ideology. He’s a direct, intelligent and respectful man,” Bogataj said from the square. “Most of all, he’s agile.”
How did the 2025 papal conclave compare to past conclaves?
Some of the cardinals had said they expected a short conclave.
For much of the past century, the conclave has needed between three and 14 ballots to find a pope.
John Paul I — the pope who reigned for 33 days in 1978 — was elected on the fourth ballot. His successor, John Paul II, needed eight. Francis was elected on the fifth in 2013.
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