Chicago-born Robert Francis Prevost was elected by fellow cardinals yesterday to lead the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics after a conclave in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel.
The 69-year-old will return to the chapel this morning celebrate a Mass with cardinals that will be broadcast by the Vatican, delivering his much anticipated first homily as pope.
Tens of thousands of well-wishers cheered Leo as he appeared on the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica on yesterday evening — but many did not know who he was.
The American, who spent two decades doing missionary work in Peru and was only made a cardinal in 2023, had been on many Vatican watchers’ lists of potential popes although he is far from being a globally recognised figure.
Over the coming days, from today’s Mass to Sunday’s midday Regina Coeli prayer and a meeting with journalists at the Vatican on Monday morning, his actions and words will be closely scrutinised.
In his first speech to the crowds packed into St Peter’s Square yesterday evening, Leo echoed his predecessor Pope Francis with a call for peace.
“Help us, and each other, to build bridges through dialogue, through encounter, to come together as one people, always in peace,” he said.
“We must seek together how to be a missionary Church, a Church that builds bridges, which holds dialogues, which is always open.”
World leaders welcomed his election as the 267th pope and promised to work with the Church on global issues at a time of great geopolitical uncertainty.
Leo faces a momentous task. As well as asserting his moral voice on a conflict-torn world stage, he must try to unite a divided Church and tackle burning issues such as the continued fallout from the sexual abuse scandal.
As Cardinal Prevost, he had defended the poor and underprivileged and had reposted articles online critical of US President Donald Trump’s anti-migrant policies.
But Trump nevertheless welcomed his election, saying on Thursday it was a “great honour” to have a pope from the United States.
The crowds erupted with cheers yesterday when white smoke billowed into the sky from the Sistine Chapel chimney, the traditional sign that a new pope has been elected.
'Did he just say Prevost?’: St Peter’s Square stunned by first American Pope, Leo XIV
“He is a moderate consensus candidate who fits into a soft continuity, a gentle continuity with Pope Francis, who will not alienate conservatives,” said Francois Mabille, a researcher at the Paris-based think tank IRIS and author of a book on Vatican strategy.
“At least, he has not alienated them.”
But Mabille predicted a more cautious style than Francis, whose declarations sometimes caught even fellow senior churchmen off guard.
“It is a posthumous success for Pope Francis, with undoubtedly some different accents and embodiment of the pontifical role,” he said.
“I do not think we will find in him the sometimes divisive statements Francis had or equally virulent criticisms of liberalism.”