Robert Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, becomes first American leader of the Catholic Church

Follow our live blog coverage of Pope Leo XIV’s election

Vatican City: Cardinal Robert Prevost, a US-born missionary and senior Vatican official, was elected pope on Thursday evening, becoming the first American to lead the Roman Catholic Church in its 2000-year history. He will be known as Pope Leo XIV.

The announcement was made at around 6.05pm local time, as white smoke billowed from the comignolo – the copper and steel chimney atop the Sistine Chapel – into the Roman evening sky. Cries of delight and applause erupted in St Peter’s Square from a mix of pilgrims, tourists and clergy.

Newly elected Pope Leo XIV appears at the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican.Credit: AP

A sea of euphoric pilgrims erupted into chants of “habemus papam!” (“we have a pope”) under a stunning Roman sunset as they welcomed the 267th pontiff with flag-waving, cheering, and prayerful hope – a moment of rare unity in an often-fractured world.

Emerging onto the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica to the roar of tens of thousands gathered below, the new pontiff’s first words were striking in their simplicity and resonance: “Peace be with you.”

“We must be a single people, always in peace,” he said. He also paid tribute to his predecessor, Pope Francis, noting that “his weak voice in his last days still rang out to the world”. The new pope emphasised the need to “build bridges”, a phrase he repeated in his short but carefully worded address.

Thousands gather as Pope Leo XIV is presented.Credit: Flavio Brancaleone

This papal election was the fastest in a century, surpassing the 2005 conclave that saw Joseph Ratzinger elected as Pope Benedict XVI in just under 36 hours. This conclave reached a decision in little more than a day, with cardinals casting several rounds of ballots before settling on Prevost.

In his first appearance as pontiff, Leo XIV did not speak English. Instead, he addressed the crowd in Italian and Spanish, reflecting both his missionary work in South America, his record as a bishop in Peru and his time at the Vatican.

Leo XIV said its members must now focus on “dialogue and love” and said “charity” should be extended to all, “especially [those] who are suffering”.

The announcement is expected to trigger celebration and scrutiny, particularly given the geopolitical complexities surrounding the Vatican’s evolving relationship with the US and the broader global south.

Within minutes, US President Donald Trump posted congratulations on his Truth Social platform, calling the elevation of an American pope “such an honour”.

Prevost, 69, was elected by a record 133 cardinals, most of whom had been appointed by Francis. Though widely seen as an outsider due to his American nationality, his deep ties to Latin America – where he served as a bishop in Peru for over two decades – made him a viable consensus candidate.

He is the youngest pope to be elected since Poland’s John Paul II, who assumed the role after the second papal conclave of 1978, when his predecessor John Paul I died after just 33 days in the role.

Until Francis’ death two weeks ago, Prevost served as head of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Bishops, one of the church’s most powerful administrative roles. In that position, he oversaw the global appointment and evaluation of bishops, giving him significant influence within the church hierarchy.

White smoke rises from the chimney on the roof of the Sistine Chapel, indicating a new pope has been elected.Credit: Getty Images

Archbishop Tim Costelloe, president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, said his appointment was a sign of the wisdom behind the Italian saying that “those who enter the conclave as a pope inevitably emerge from the conclave as a cardinal”.

“Cardinal Prevost brought to his most recent role as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops an approachability and willingness to listen which were no doubt developed throughout his many years as an Augustinian missionary in Peru,” he said.

“He will be warmly welcomed by the church in Latin America, as Pope Francis was, by the church in the United States from where he comes, from the English-speaking world as a native English speaker, and from the whole church as a man of God steeped in the rich spirituality of his Augustinian religious order.”

Born in Chicago and ordained in 1982, Prevost entered the Order of St. Augustine and earned a doctorate in canon law from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome. His career included work as a missionary, educator, and eventually a bishop in Peru, where he became a naturalised citizen and fluent Spanish speaker.

Though he has kept a low media profile, Prevost is seen as ideologically aligned with Francis, particularly in prioritising outreach to the poor, care for migrants, and a less hierarchical vision of church leadership.

“The bishop is not supposed to be a little prince sitting in his kingdom,” he said in a Vatican interview last year – a remark that echoed Francis’ critique of clericalism.

However, Leo XIV’s record also contains more conservative elements. In a 2012 address, he criticised Western media for promoting “sympathy for beliefs and practices that are at odds with the Gospel”, referencing same-sex families and what he called the “homosexual lifestyle.” While he supported Francis’s pastoral move to allow Communion for divorced and remarried Catholics, he showed only reserved backing for blessings of same-sex couples.

His handling of clerical abuse cases during his time in Peru is expected to come under closer scrutiny now that he has ascended to the papacy.

Still, within the Vatican, Leo XIV is regarded as a unifying figure. His international experience and quiet diplomacy allowed him to navigate the ideological and regional divides among the cardinals. His election may mark a stylistic shift from Francis’s more outspoken leadership, but not necessarily a reversal of his reforms.

The view from St Peter’s Square as Pope Leo XIV is presented for the first time.Credit: Flavio Brancaleone

The conclave process was conducted under strict secrecy, with cardinals surrendering their mobile phones and the Vatican implementing signal jammers to prevent external communication during the deliberations.

Before the conclave began, several key figures emerged as frontrunners, including Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s Secretary of State; Luis Antonio Tagle, a reformist from the Philippines; Péter Erdo, a traditionalist from Hungary; Robert Sarah, a cardinal from Guinea who has openly criticised Francis’s papacy; and Prevost.

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