White smoke is pouring out of the Sistine Chapel chimney, signaling that a pope has been elected to lead the Catholic Church. The new pope is American, an historic choice for the church. It was announced that Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, a native of Chicago, Ill., was selected and will take the name Leo XIV.
The 69-year old Prevost secured at least 89 votes of the 133 cardinals participating in the conclave to elect a successor to Pope Francis. Prevost spent most of his life as American missionary. He spent much his career ministering in Peru and leads the Vatican’s powerful office of bishops. He is the first American pope in the 2,000-year history of the Catholic Church.
The crowd in St. Peter’s Square erupted in cheers. As the crowd waited, the Swiss Guards marched out and a military band played, marching up the steps to the basilica.
From the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica, history’s first American pope recalled that he was an Augustinian priest, but a Christian above all, and a bishop, “so we can all walk together.”
He spoke in Italian and then switched to Spanish, recalling his many years spent as a missionary and then archbishop of Chiclayo, Peru.
Prevost had been a leading candidate except for his nationality. There had long been a taboo against a U.S. pope, given the geopolitical power already wielded by the United States in the secular sphere. But Prevost, a Chicago native, was seemingly eligible also because he’s 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 brought Prevost 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. As a result, Prevost had a prominence going into the conclave that few other cardinals have.
Archbishop of Minneapolis-St. Paul, Bernard A. Hebda, released the following statement Thursday:
"With Catholics around the world, I give thanks for the election of Pope Leo XIV as successor of Saint Peter. We continue to be blessed by the Lord’s assurances that he will be with his Church always. I am grateful that Pope Leo XIV has said “yes” to this unparalleled call to lead, and I trust that the Holy Spirit will help him to use his unique gifts and experience to serve the Church of Rome and the Universal Church. l promise him my prayers, and the prayers of this local Church as he prepares to begin his Petrine ministry. Please join me at a Mass for the new Pontiff at the Cathedral in Saint Paul this evening at 5:15 p.m."