Robert Francis Prevost elected as Pope Leo XIV, the next leader of the Catholic Church

Robert Prevost has been elected as the 267th Pope. He speaks five languages and has faced controversy about his handling of clergy sexual abuse. Here is everything we know about Pope Leo XIV.

Pope Leo XIV, the first American pope, is a Chicago native who, like Pope Francis, will apply his political clout to tackle social issues.

Overlooked by bookmakers, Robert Prevost, 69, is a surprise choice who is expected to perpetuate some of his predecessor’s politically progressive ideals on climate change and migrants.

Labelled a centrist, Leo appears to be more conservative on same-sex issues.

Newly elected Pope Leo XIV appears at the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican. Picture: AP Photo

In his opening words, on the St Peter’s balcony, spoken in Spanish and Italian, he said: “We still hear in our ears the weak but always courageous voice of Pope Francis who blessed us. United and hand-in-hand with God, let us advance together.”

His role as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops in Latin America was considered very important within the church. He selected and supervised bishops in one of the world’s biggest and most devout Catholic strongholds.

He rose fast. Made an archbishop in January 2023, Francis appointed him a cardinal a few months later.

No matter his troubles, Leo is said to project good humour and joy. Happily, he smiled in his first moments as the new pope.

He is a dual citizen of the US and Peru, where he was archbishop of Chiclayo and has spent much of his adult life.

Pope Leo XIV’s election came as a surprise to many. Picture: AFP

One of three brothers, he earned a degree in maths before studying for a masters degree in divinity and was ordained as a priest in 1982.

He himself has been reported as saying that America was unlikely to produce a pope unless there was a political decline, given the country’s powerful influence in political, cultural and economic affairs.

Thought to have prevailed as a compromise candidate in the secret machinations of the conclave, he is described as softly spoken and even-handed.

Leo has been called “the least American of the Americans” in the church’s highest echelons.

His task will include the need to unite parts of the world with drastically opposed perspectives on same-sex unions.

As he once said: “You have to remember there are still places in Africa that apply the death penalty, for example, for people who are living in a homosexual relationship … So, we’re in very different worlds.”

Back in 2012, he articulated a disregard for the way pop culture expressed “sympathy for beliefs and practices that contradict the gospel.”

Pope Leo has opposed the ordainment of women, which follows from Francis, He believes that women contribute “a great deal to the life of the Church”, and he presided over a decision to add women to the voting bloc that determined which bishop nominations were forwarded to the pope.

In 2023, Leo said: “Something that needs to be said also is that ordaining women — and there’s been some women that have said this interestingly enough — ‘clericalising women’ doesn’t necessarily solve a problem, it might make a new problem.”

His approach to the church’s worldwide scourge of sex abuse remains to be seen.

Within minutes of the new pope’s presentation to the world, survivor advocacy groups reiterated earlier claims that Leo had failed to act decisively against accused priests in Illinois and Peru.

Like Francis, he has tackled the Catholic bearings of US vice-president JD Vance: “JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others,” he posted on social media earlier this year.

In the days before the conclave, frontrunner Cardinal Pietro Parolin was rumoured to have lost support.

The day after Francis’ funeral, he led mass for 200,000 young people in St Peter’s Square.

Critics suggested that the event showed an institutional candidate’s inability to connect with people, a trait exalted as Francis’ greatest strength.

Villanova University historical theology professor Massimo Faggioli said following Francis was difficult because Francis was a unique figure who had a “direct connection with people”.

Leo will signal likely narratives from his first speech, first encyclical, the first trip and the choice of the first international figures whom he meets.

Professor Faggioli said the global disruption triggered by Donald Trump would be one of the broad issues confronting the new pope.

Keeping women in the church, and convincing them that they belong, was among the traditional challenges.

In some countries, the church was persecuted.

“And so you have a pope that has to measure every word when he speaks on certain issues in certain countries to certain leaders,” he said.

“That’s something that now is truer than ever, because now it’s a very unstable situation, so the diplomatic skill of the Pope is very important.”

The Catholic Church had waned in the western world, in part because of its perceived lack of appeal for young people.

“In some sense, the future of the church in some countries has to be rebuilt, because there’s not much left from what was there in the Middle Ages or the early modern period,” Professor Faggioli said.

“So this is a very diverse church globally, a church that is growing, a church that is slowly fading away.”

Leo secured a two-thirds majority to be elected by 133 conclave cardinals, who ate, slept and voted in monitored conditions until an outcome was reached.

Secrecy is key to every conclave.

The elector cardinals are forbidden from discussing the election afterwards. They could not communicate with anyone by any means during the conclave. Their isolation traces to 1274 and Pope Gregory X.

A maximum of four ballots a day could take place in the most recent conclave.

The practice of releasing smoke from a chapel chimney – black for no result, white for the election of a new pope – dates to 1914.

Chemicals were added to the burning of the ballot papers to accentuate the colour of the smoke after confusion following the 1939 and 1958 conclaves.

Since 2005, the St Peter’s Basilica bell rings at the appearance of white smoke.

Before Francis’ election in 2013, the Sistine Chapel was swept for bugs – in previous conclaves, it is reported, press reporters were found to have disguised themselves as conclave servants.

In 2013, in a sharp turn from tradition later said to denote his accessible style, Pope Francis’s first words from the St Peter’s balcony were: “Brothers and sisters, good evening.”

The three previous conclaves elected a Pole (1978), a German (2005) and an Argentinian (2013).

Originally published as Robert Francis Prevost elected as Pope Leo XIV, the next leader of the Catholic Church