The 133 cardinals who assembled within the Vatican for the top-secret conclave have chosen the Roman Catholic Church’s first U.S.-born pope: Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost.
Prevost, who will now go by his chosen papal title of Pope Leo XIV, succeeds the late Pope Francis, who died at age 88 final month.
1000’s crammed the streets of Vatican Metropolis and cheered as Pope Leo XIV, a 69-year-old native of Chicago and polyglot with twin nationalities, stepped out on the balcony overlooking St. Peter’s Sq. to cheers whereas carrying crimson and white.
His look got here roughly an hour after plumes of white smoke streamed from a Sistine Chapel chimney Thursday, signaling {that a} new chief of the Roman Catholic Church ― a religion with greater than 1 billion followers ― had been chosen by a two-thirds majority vote of the cardinals, the church’s most senior clergy underneath the pope.
“Peace be with you,” he mentioned in his first speech as pope, which he gave in Italian, Spanish and Latin, however not English.
“Dear brothers and sisters, this is the first greeting of the Risen Christ, the good shepherd who gave his life for the flock of God. I too would like this greeting of peace to enter your hearts to reach your families to all people everywhere to all the earth: peace be with you,” he mentioned, in response to The Related Press.
Pope Leo XIV is initially from Chicago’s South Aspect, in response to the Chicago Solar Instances, and earned a bachelor’s diploma in arithmetic from Villanova College in Pennsylvania in 1977 earlier than receiving his theology diploma from the Catholic Theological Union of Chicago in 1982.
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After finishing his research in canon regulation in Rome, he served 20 years in Peru, the place he labored as a missionary, parish priest, instructor and have become the archbishop of Chiclayo, within the nation’s northwest. He was additionally appointed the prior common, or chief, of the Order of St. Augustine in 2001 after becoming a member of the spiritual order in 1977.
He turned a naturalized Peruvian citizen in 2015 and was delivered to the Vatican in 2023 by the previous pope, Francis, the place he has served as the top of the workplace that vets bishop nominations.
The 267th pontiff was chosen after a number of rounds of voting over two days. In 2013, it took 5 rounds of voting in underneath two days for the cardinals to decide on Francis. The quickest conclave lasted solely 10 hours in 1503, whereas the longest lasted practically three years in 1268.
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The conclave initiated Wednesday morning native time, starting with mass, prayers and oath-taking earlier than the primary vote that night. Italian media reported that the Vatican deactivated all cellphone alerts and activated sign jammers within the space to forestall any surveillance of the proceedings.
Any of the cardinals may have been named the subsequent pope ― and technically, church guidelines state that any Catholic male is eligible for the position ― however solely a handful of cardinals are seen because the prime contenders. And although there are 252 members of the Faculty of Cardinals, solely these underneath 80 are eligible electors. Among the many 133 who voted, the Argentine-born Francis had appointed 108 of them ― lending him sizable posthumous affect on who’s been chosen as his successor.
This conclave has been essentially the most geographically various one in historical past, with cardinals hailing from 71 nations, together with 17 from Africa, 23 from Asia, 37 from the Americas and 4 from Oceania. The remaining 52 are from Europe, the birthplace of each pope besides Francis for the previous 1,300 years.
