The Catholic Church has a new Pope.
The American cardinal Robert Prevost has been chosen on the 267th Pontiff. He has chosen the name Leo XIV, announced a Cardinal of Senior Deacon.
The 69 -year -old Chicago native is the first American Pope and is seen as a diplomat in the Church.
After the death of Pope Francis on April 21, the 133 Cardinals, the highest ranking clergy of the Church, gathered to choose a new Pope for the Catholic Church in the secret conclave in Rome.
On Thursday afternoon, the local time, the white smoke left the chimney of the stove on the Sistine Chapel and sounded the bells of the Basilica of San Pedro, which means that the cardinals had chosen a new Pope. The cardinals issued at least four ballots in the Vatican before a cardinal received at least two thirds of the vote.
The newly elected Pope Leo XIV, Cardinal Robert F. Prevost of the United States, appears on the balcony of the Basilica of San Pedro in the Vatican, on May 8, 2025.
Dylan Martínez/Reuters
More than an hour after the white smoke, the new Pope emerged, dressed in his papal clothes, went out to the balcony and greeted the world. Pope Leo delivered his first Apostolic Blessing Urbi et Orbi, which means “the city and the world.”
Its full authority and jurisdiction begin immediately after their acceptance of the office, before the public announcement.
Importance of the papal name
Leo is the fifth most popular name chosen by the potatoes.
Leo XIII was a founding figure of the Catholic tradition of social justice.
While the potatoes are not obliged to change their name, each pontiff during the last 470 years has done so, generally choosing the name of a predecessor to honor them and point to their intention to emulate their example. Pope Francis was a remarkable exception, choosing not the name of a former Pope but that of San Francisco de Asís, the cleric of the thirteenth century and the patron saint of animals and the environment.
The white smoke rises from the chimney in the Sistine Chapel, indicating that a new Pope has been chosen in the Vatican, on May 8, 2025.
Tiziana Fabi/AFP through Getty Images
Seen as leader
Pope Leo began to emerge as the papacy leader in the days before the conclave, according to Father James Martin, a papal taxpayer of ABC News.
He was the only American cardinal in a brief list of leaders for Pope, also known as “Papabiles”, compiled after the death of Pope Francis for The Association press.
He received a priestly ordination on June 19, 1982, after study Vatican Press website.
Francisco brought Pope Leo to work in the Vatican after appointing him for the first time in 2014 to serve as a bishop of Chiclayo, Peru. He has spent most of his time in Peru, where he has also worked as a teacher, missionary and pastor.
In April 2020, Francis appointed him to be the apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Callao, also in Peru, according to his profile.
Since 2023, he has held the position in the Vatican as a prefect of Dicastery for Bishops, in charge of the investigation of nominations for bishops around the world.
Pope Leo told him Vatican news In October 2024, it is assumed that a “bishop is not a small prince sitting in his kingdom, but is called authentically humble, to be close to the people he serves, walk with them and suffer with them.”
He currently also serves as president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.
In a 2023 interview with the Catholic news serviceHe was asked how he responds to problems with bishops or diocese, to which he said he reminds the clergymen to reflect on his oath to “live and work in communion with the Holy Father.”
“The spirit of Sinodality includes a need and desire to listen not only to the bishop himself, but many people in the diocese to see what is the best way to promote the authentic church in each diocese of the world,” he said at that time.
