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Following the death of Pope Francis on April 21, the 133 cardinals — the church’s highest-ranking clergy — gathered to elect a new pope for the Catholic Church in the secret conclave in Rome.
On Thursday afternoon local time, white smoke billowed from the stovetop chimney atop the Sistine Chapel and the bells of St. Peter’s Basilica rang out, signifying the cardinals had elected a new pope. The cardinals cast at least four ballots at the Vatican before a cardinal received at least two-thirds of the vote.
Over an hour after the white smoke emerged, the new pope, a 69-year-old American from Chicago, Illinois, and the first-ever pontiff from America, clad in his papal vestments, stepped out onto the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica and greeted the world.
He was elected with two-thirds of 133 voting cardinals. Before his election, he was Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, and he spent much of his career as a missionary in South America and served as bishop in Peru.
He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from Villanova University in Pennsylvania and a diploma in Theology from the Catholic Theological Union of Chicago.
He later studied Canon Law at the Pontifical Saint Thomas Aquinas University.
He was ordained a priest at age 27, and spent many years working in Peru and later became a bishop
He mentioned Pope Francis twice and explicitly said he wants to pick up where the late pope left off on that very balcony on Easter, before giving Urbi et Orbi blessing — meaning to “the city and the world.”
“We have to be a church that works together to build bridges and to keep our arms open, like this very piazza, welcoming,” Leo told the crowd while speaking in Italian.
His full authority and jurisdiction begin immediately upon his acceptance of the office, prior to the public announcement.
Significance of papal name
Leo is the fifth-most-popular name chosen by popes.
Pope Leo XIII, who headed the Catholic Church from 1878 until his death in 1903, was a founding figure of the Catholic social justice tradition.
While popes aren’t obliged to change their name, every pontiff for the past 470 years has done so, usually choosing the name of a predecessor to both honor them and signal their intention to emulate his example. Pope Francis was a notable exception, choosing not the name of a former pope but that of St. Francis of Assisi, the 13th century cleric and patron saint of animals and the environment.
Seen as front-runner
Pope Leo started to emerge as a front-runner for the papacy in the days before the conclave began, according to the Rev. James Martin, a papal contributor to ABC News.
Following the announcement of the new pope, Martin told ABC News on Thursday that he knows Leo, describing him as “very down-to-earth” and a “very kind person, very reserved.”
Pope Leo was the only U.S. cardinal on a short list of front-runners for pope, also known as “papabiles,” compiled in the aftermath of Pope Francis’ death by The Associated Press.
Brought to work at the Vatican by Pope Francis
He received priestly ordination on June 19, 1982, after studying canon law at the Pontifical Saint Thomas Aquinas University, according to his bio on the Vatican Press website.
Francis brought Pope Leo to work at the Vatican after first appointing him in 2014 to serve as the bishop of Chiclayo, Peru. He has spent a majority of his time in Peru, where he has also worked as a teacher, missionary and parish priest.
In April 2020, Francis appointed him to be the apostolic administrator of the diocese of Callao, also in Peru, his profile said.
Since 2023, he has held the position at the Vatican as Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, in charge of vetting nominations for bishops around the world.
Pope Leo told Vatican News in October 2024 that a “bishop is not supposed to be a little prince sitting in his kingdom, but rather called authentically to be humble, to be close to the people he serves, to walk with them and to suffer with them.”
He also currently serves as the president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.
In a 2023 interview with the Catholic News Service, he was asked how he responds to problems with bishops or dioceses — to which he said he reminds clergymen to reflect on their oath to “live and work in communion with the Holy Father.”
“The spirit of synodality includes a need and desire to listen to not only the bishop himself, but to many people in the diocese to see what’s the best way to promote authentic church in each and every diocese in the world,” he said at the time.
In a historic turn of events, Prevost was elected as the first American pope, just days after US President Donald Trump sparked controversy by posting an AI-generated image of himself dressed as the pope on his Truth Social platform.
Trump’s AI-altered image, showing him in full papal attire, sparked laughter, confusion, and criticism online on Saturday.
The image was later reposted by the White House’s official X account, accompanying Trump’s remark to reporters: “I’d like to be pope; that would be my number one choice.”
This comment was made just before the conclave to choose a successor to Pope Francis, who passed away on April 21 after 12 years as head of the Church.
The newly elected Pope became a Peruvian citizen in 2015 and speaks several languages, including Italian and Spanish.
abcNews/PUNCH
