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VATICAN CITY: US Cardinal Robert Prevost was elected in a surprise choice to be the new leader of the Catholic Church on Thursday (May 8), taking the name Leo XIV, becoming the first American pontiff.
Pope Leo appeared on the central balcony of St Peter's Basilica around 70 minutes after white smoke billowed from a chimney atop the Sistine Chapel signifying the 133 cardinal electors had chosen a new leader for the 1.4 billion-member Catholic Church.
The choice of Prevost was announced by French Cardinal Dominique Mamberti with the Latin words "Habemus Papam" (We have a pope) to tens of thousands of people gathered in St. Peter's Square to hear the news.
Aged 69 and originally from Chicago, Prevost has spent most of his career as a missionary in Peru and became a cardinal only in 2023. He has given few media interviews and rarely speaks in public.
Pope Leo becomes the 267th Catholic pope after the death last month of Pope Francis, who was the first Latin American pope and had led the Church for 12 years and widely sought to open the staid institution up to the modern world.
Donald Trump has congratulated the new Pope - the first American pontiff - describing it as an "honour" for the country.
The US president says on his social media platform, Truth Social:, external "Congratulations to Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, who was just named Pope.
"It is such an honour to realise 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!"
Robert Prevost, the most Latin American of U.S. cardinals
Voices that could shape the conclave. Born in the United States and a member of the Augustinian order, Cardinal Robert Prevost — currently head of the Vatican office responsible for appointing bishops — spent much of his life as a missionary and bishop in Peru and now works to bridge divides in the global church.
April 30th, 2025 at 11:00 pm (Europe\Rome).
A sign of Pope Francis’ trust in him, Cardinal Robert Prevost was tapped in early 2023 to lead the Dicastery for Bishops — the powerful Vatican department that oversees episcopal appointments across half the Catholic world. Later that year, the pope made him a cardinal bishop, one of the highest ranks in the College of Cardinals. Yet Cardinal Prevost remains a low-profile figure, rarely seen in the media. Even as president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, he kept a low profile. He has spoken little on issues such as migration and remains relatively unknown outside Peru.
Though born in Chicago to a French father and Italian mother, Cardinal Prevost has deep roots in Latin America. Shortly after earning a degree in canon law from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome, he arrived in 1984, at just 29 years old, in the remote Andean region of Chulucanas, in northern Peru.
After briefly returning to Chicago in 1988, he moved to Trujillo, Peru’s third-largest city, to oversee religious formation. A decade later, he became provincial of the Augustinians in the American Midwest. In 2001, he was elected the order’s prior general in Rome, a post he held until 2013.
In 2014, with Peru’s Catholic hierarchy mired in scandal, Francis appointed him bishop of Chiclayo, again in northern Peru, opting for an outsider to help restore credibility. Nearly a decade later, in what many saw as a surprise move, the pope called him back to Rome to succeed Cardinal Marc Ouellet as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops.
A bridge between factions
Cardinal Prevost has seen the multicultural church Francis championed firsthand, but he is clear-eyed about the challenges. “Maintaining unity in diversity is a real challenge,” he said in an interview published by the Augustinians. “Especially when polarization has become the default mode of a society that, instead of seeking unity as a fundamental principle, swings from one extreme to the other.”
He cautioned against confusing unity with uniformity or embracing diversity as a free-for-all devoid of standards or order.
During his time at the Vatican, Prevost has avoided the ideological battles that have flared during the final years of Francis’ pontificate. He played a quiet but conciliatory role with German bishops over the divisive Synodal Way — an initiative that has faced strong resistance in the Roman Curia.
Praised for his ability to listen and synthesize, Prevost is increasingly seen as a bridge between polarized camps within the church.
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