Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost was elected by the College of Cardinals to succeed the late Pope Francis on Thursday, taking the papal name Pope Leo XIV.
Prevost, 69, is a native of Chicago. He is the 267th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church and the first American Pope in the Church’s history. A former prefect of the influential Dicastery for Bishops, Pope Leo XIV spent decades as a missionary in Peru. Leading up to the conclave, he was considered a compromise candidate and one of the frontrunners because of his missionary work and Vatican experience.
French Cardinal Dominique Mamberti, another rumored candidate for the Papacy, announced Pope Leo XIV’s election on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica to a roaring crowd. The newly elected Pontiff appeared to be emotional during the blessing he delivered from the balcony as he re-introduced himself to the world. Eagle-eyed observers noticed the Pope wore traditional garments for his introductory remarks, but he broke with custom by initially reading his speech from a piece of paper.
Pope Leo XIV paid tribute to Pope Francis in his speech while reiterating the Church’s missionary zeal and charitable heart. He also touched on the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and peace in his address.
“We have to seek together to be a missionary church, a church that builds bridges and dialogue, always ready to accept, like this great piazza, with its arms, we have to show our charity, presence and dialogue with love,” he said.
Pope Francis elevated Prevost to Bishop of Chiclayo in Peru in 2015 and named him a Cardinal in 2023 after the Church played an important role in maintaining stability in Peru amid political crises. He became prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops in January 2023, making him responsible for the appointment of Bishops, an enormously powerful role within the Church.
Ordained in 1982, Prevost received an undergraduate degree from Villanova University in 1977 and then obtained a Master of Divinity from the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. He went off to Rome for degrees in canon law at the Pontifical College of St. Thomas Aquinas before joining the Augustinian mission in Peru in 1985.
“With today’s election of His Holiness, Pope Leo XIV, I cannot help but reflect on what his Augustinian papacy will mean to our University community and our world. Known for his humility, gentle spirit, prudence and warmth, Pope Leo XIV’s leadership offers an opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to our educational mission,” said Villanova president Rev. Peter Donohue.
He spent a notable portion of his career at the Augustinian seminary in Trujillo until returning to Chicago in 1999 to oversee the Augustinian province. Prevost later led the Augustinian order for two terms from 2001 to 2013 until he went back to Peru.
Pope Leo XIV’s positions on some issues within the Church are largely unknown, but he is thought to be close to Francis’s views on the environment. At a conference last year, he emphasized the Vatican’s commitment to environmental protection and said humanity must have a “relationship of reciprocity” with the environment.
He is also believed to hold similar views to Pope Francis on outreach to immigrants and the poor, two staples of Francis’s papacy. The freshly elected pontiff has voiced support for synodality within the Church, making him a proponent of Francis’s participatory approach to Church dialogue.
“The episcopal ministry performs an important service, but then we must put all this at the service of the Church in this synodal spirit that simply means walking together, all of us, and seeking together what the Lord is asking of us, in this our time,” he told Vatican news in 2023.
As Bishop of Chiclayo, Prevost opposed a government proposal to introduce gender ideology in schools, keeping in line with Catholic teachings. He previously critiqued western culture and media for promoting beliefs that are not aligned with the Gospel, including homosexuality.
He took a less defined position on LGBT outreach and Pope Francis’s Fiducia Supplicans, a document that allowed non-ritualized blessings for same-sex couples in rare situations, but did not change the Church’s steadfast opposition to gay marriage. Prevost commented that national bishops should be allowed to interpret and apply Francis’s directive based on their own preferences. The document received harsh criticism from African bishops and traditionalists who believe it promoted heresy and intentionally muddied the waters on a vital question of Church doctrine.
Last year, Prevost emphasized the Church’s need for humility and service, telling the Vatican’s news outlet church leaders are “called authentically to be humble, to be close to the people he serves, to walk with them, to suffer with them.”
Questions have been raised over the new pontiff’s handling of sexual abuse cases in Peru and Chicago, however his former diocese in Chiclayo has strongly denied claims of a coverup, noting that he tended to the victims in 2022 and followed Church processes.
The new Pope’s name, Leo, suggests a spiritual connection to Pope Leo XIII, a 19th century Pope known for his combination of supporting workers rights and opposing communism. Pope Leo XIII had one of the longest reigns in Catholic history and urged devotion to the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, in eleven encyclicals on the Rosary.
The new pontiff recently amplified Francis’s denunciation of Catholic U.S. Vice President JD Vance’s use of the Ordo Amoris, or the proper ordering of affections, to defend the Trump administration’s policy of mass deportations. Vance, for his part, congratulated the new Pope in a Thursday tweet.
The new Pope appears to have voted in Republican primaries in Illinois, although his online activity suggests views that fit neatly into Catholic teachings rather than the American political spectrum.
Pope Leo XIV immediately received congratulations from leaders around the world, such as U.S. President Donald Trump.
“Congratulations to Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, who was just named Pope. It is such an honor to realize that he is the first American Pope. What excitement, and what a Great Honor for our Country. I look forward to meeting Pope Leo XIV. It will be a very meaningful moment!” Trump said.
“A historic moment for the Catholic Church and its millions of faithful. To Pope Leo XIV, and to all Catholics in France and around the world, I extend a message of fraternity. On this May 8th, may this new pontificate be one of peace and hope,” said French President Emmanuel Macron.
The new Pope was selected by a group of 133 cardinals, the highest number ever convened for a papal conclave. In the sacred process, members of the College of Cardinals who are under the age of 80 vote in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel to select the man who will lead the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics. A two-thirds majority of Cardinals is required to select the new Pope.
The papal conclave convened weeks after Pope’s Francis’s death to quickly select the next head of the Church. An estimated 30,000 people gathered around St. Peter’s Square in an attempt to bear witness to the top-secret process by watching the smoke coming out of the Sistine Chapel’s chimney.
On Wednesday, black smoke came out of the chimney, signifying that a new Pope had not been elected after the first vote. The second and third votes occurred Thursday morning and black smoke came up from the chimney again.
As the White smoke rose from the Sistine Chapel, Catholics came together to announce Habemus Papam, Latin for “we have a Pope,” as they awaited the 267th Pope to address the faithful from the balcony at St. Peter’s Basilica. Lay Catholics watching at St. Peter’s Square could be seen waving flags from countries across the globe, signifying the Church’s significance and universality worldwide.
Pope Francis, who was elected in 2013, died at 88 just one day after Easter Sunday following an extended battle with a complex respiratory infection. He ultimately suffered a cerebral stroke that caused irreversible heart failure on Easter Monday. Pope Francis’s death led to a period of mourning among Catholics, who reflected on the end of the Holy Father’s earthy live and what they believe to be the beginning of his eternal life.
The cardinal electors were tasked with choosing a successor to Francis who would inherit some of the same challenges Francis dealt with throughout his Pontificate. Under Pope Francis, the Church grappled with sexual abuse scandals, financial complications, divisions on doctrine and liturgy, and declining numbers of western faithful as Catholicism spread rapidly throughout Africa.
During his pontificate, Pope Francis often drew the ire of more traditionalist Catholics with his outreach to the LGBT community and his hostility towards the Traditional Latin Mass. Traditionalists also criticized Pope Francis’s perceived ambiguity on matters of Church doctrine, especially LGBT issues. The Latin Mass remains a pressing issue for the Church and a major question for the new Pope, due to the contrasting approaches between the late Popes Benedict XVI and Francis.
Pope Francis led the Church in its response to a number of high-profile sexual misconduct scandals involving clergy, including that of deceased former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who sexually abused adult male seminarians and minors for decades.
The late pontiff also called for modern nations to end the use of the death penalty, revising the Catechism of the Catholic Church to reflect his position, and placed an emphasis on helping the poor and immigrants. Reflecting the Pope’s international significance, Francis advocated for diplomatic solutions to geopolitical issues and armed conflict, including the ongoing wars in Ukraine and Gaza.