Robert Prevost, the choice of the world's Catholic cardinals to serve as leader of the 1.4bn member Church, is the first pope from the United States and a relative unknown on the global stage.
Aged 69 and originally from Chicago, Prevost has spent most of his career as an Augustinian missionary in Peru and became a cardinal only in 2023.
He takes the papal name Leo XIV, and succeeds Pope Francis, who had led the Church since 2013.
Rev Mark Francis, a friend of Prevost since the 1970s, said the cardinal was a firm supporter of his predecessor's papacy, and especially of the late pontiff's commitment to social justice issues.
"He was always friendly and warm and remained a voice of common sense and practical concerns for the Church's outreach to the poor," said Francis, who attended seminary with Prevost and later knew him when they both lived in Rome in the 2000s.
"He has a wry sense of humour, but was not someone who sought the limelight," said Francis, who leads the US province of the Viatorian religious order.
Prevost first served as a bishop in Chiclayo, in northwestern Peru, from 2015 to 2023, and became a Peruvian citizen in 2015, so he has dual nationalities.
Pope Francis brought him to Rome that year to head the Vatican office in charge of choosing which priests should serve as Catholic bishops across the globe, meaning he has had a hand in selecting many of the world's bishops.
Significantly, he presided over one of the most revolutionary reforms Francis made, when he added three women to the voting bloc that decides which bishop nominations to forward to the pope.
In early 2025, Francis again showed his esteem by appointing Prevost to the most senior rank of cardinals.
Prevost had been a leading candidate for the papacy, but there had long been a taboo against a U.S. pope, given the country's geopolitical power already wielded in the secular sphere.
But Prevost was seemingly eligible because he’s also a Peruvian citizen and lived for years in Peru, first as a missionary and then as an archbishop.
Francis clearly had his eye on Prevost and in many ways saw him as his heir apparent. He sent Prevost to take over a complicated diocesan situation in Peru, then brought him to the Vatican in 2023 to serve as the powerful head of the office that vets bishop nominations from around the world, one of the most important jobs in the Catholic Church.
And in January he elevated him into the senior ranks of cardinals. As a result, Prevost had a prominence going into the conclave that few other cardinals had.
Prevost has given few media interviews, but some of his social media posts give a clue as to his views on the current leadership of the country he was born in.
In April he reposted on X a Catholic Standard article by an archbishop from El Salvador about extrajudicial Trump administration deportations of migrants. It dealt with the plight of those seized and sometimes flown to countries they did not originally come from, such as El Salvador, where they are kept in harsh conditions, and where hardline president Nayib Bukele is an ally of Donald Trump.
The article by Bishop Evelio Menjivar compares the ordeal of immigrants to the passion of Christ, and states: “As with Jesus in the Garden and after His arrest, this suffering includes not only the abuse inflicted upon migrants and refugees by the government, but the lack of noticeable support by people they considered to be friends.”
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He also reposted an article from the National Catholic Reporter which was critical of US vice president JD Vance, under the headline: “JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn't ask us to rank our love for others.”
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Jesus Leon Angeles, coordinator of a Catholic group in Chiclayo who has known Prevost since 2018, called him a "very simple" person who would go out of his way to help others.
Leon Angeles said Prevost had shown special concern for Venezuelan migrants in Peru, saying: "He is a person who likes to help." More than 1.5m Venezuelans have moved to Peru in recent years, partly to escape their country's economic crisis.
In a 2023 interview with the Vatican's news outlet, Prevost focused on the importance of evangelisation to help the Church grow.
"We are often preoccupied with teaching doctrine...but we risk forgetting that our first task is to teach what it means to know Jesus Christ," he said.
Prevost said during a 2023 Vatican press conference: "Our work is to enlarge the tent and to let everyone know they are welcome inside the Church."
'HE KNOWS HOW TO LISTEN'
Prevost was born in 1955 and is a member of the global Augustinian religious order, which includes about 2,500 priests and brothers, operates in 50 countries and has a special focus on a life of community and equality among its members.
He has a bachelor's degree from Villanova University in Philadelphia, a master's from the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, and a doctorate in Church law from the Pontifical College of St Thomas Aquinas in Rome.
Prevost first went to Peru as a missionary in 1985, returning to the United States in 1999 to take up a leadership role in his religious order.
He later moved to Rome to serve two six-year terms as head of the Augustinians, visiting many of the order's communities across the world. He is known to speak English, Spanish, Italian, French and Portuguese.
Returning to Rome in 2023, Prevost generally did not take part in many of the social events that attract Vatican officials throughout the city.
Leon Angeles said he is a person with leadership skills, "but at the same time, he knows how to listen. He has that virtue."
"The cardinal has the courtesy to ask for an opinion, even if it's from the simplest or most humble person," she said. "He knows how to listen to everyone."