By NICOLE WINFIELD and VANESSA GERA, Related Press
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Catholic cardinals broke with custom Thursday and elected the primary U.S. pope, making Chicago-born missionary Robert Prevost the 267th pontiff to steer the Catholic Church in a second of worldwide turmoil and battle.
Prevost, a 69-year-old member of the Augustinian non secular order who spent his profession ministering in Peru, took the title Leo XIV.
In his first phrases as Pope Francis’ successor, uttered from the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica, Leo mentioned, “Peace be with you,” and emphasised a message of “a disarmed and disarming peace” dialogue and missionary evangelization.
He wore the standard pink cape and trappings of the papacy — a cape that Francis had eschewed on his election in 2013 — suggesting a return to some extent of custom after Francis’ unorthodox preach. However in naming himself Leo, the brand new pope might even have needed to sign a powerful line of continuity: Brother Leo was the thirteenth century friar who was an incredible companion to St. Francis of Assisi, the late pope’s namesake.
“Collectively, we should attempt to learn the way to be a missionary church, a church that builds bridges, establishes dialogue, that’s all the time open to obtain — like on this piazza with open arms — to have the ability to obtain all people that wants our charity, our presence, dialogue and love,” Leo mentioned in near-perfect Italian.
Prevost had been a number one candidate for the papacy, however there had lengthy been a taboo in opposition to a U.S. pope, given the geopolitical energy the nation already wields. However Prevost was seemingly eligible as a result of he’s additionally a Peruvian citizen and had lived for years in Peru, first as a missionary after which as bishop, and cardinals could have thought the twenty first century world order might deal with a U.S.-born pope.
Francis, historical past’s first Latin American pope, clearly had his eye on Prevost and in some ways noticed him as his inheritor obvious. He despatched Prevost to take over an advanced diocese in Peru, then introduced him to the Vatican in 2023 to function the highly effective head of the workplace that vets bishop nominations from world wide, one of the necessary jobs within the Catholic Church. Earlier this 12 months, Francis elevated Prevost into the senior ranks of cardinals, giving him prominence going into the conclave that few different cardinals had.
Pope Leo XIV seems on the central loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica after being chosen the 267th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church, on the Vatican, Thursday, Could 8, 2025. (AP Picture/Alessandra Tarantino)
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Pope Leo XIV seems on the central loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica after being chosen the 267th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church, on the Vatican, Thursday, Could 8, 2025. (AP Picture/Alessandra Tarantino)
Broaden
Since arriving in Rome, Prevost has saved a low public profile however was well-known to the boys who rely. Considerably, he presided over one of the revolutionary reforms Francis made, when he added three girls to the voting bloc that decides which bishop nominations to ahead to the pope.
Celebrating the brand new pope
The gang in St. Peter’s Sq. erupted in cheers Thursday when white smoke poured out of the Sistine Chapel shortly after 6 p.m. on the second day of the conclave, essentially the most geographically various in historical past. Clergymen made the signal of the cross and nuns wept as the gang shouted, “Viva il papa!”
Waving flags from world wide, tens of hundreds of individuals waited for greater than an hour to study who had gained and had been stunned an hour later, when the senior cardinal deacon appeared on the loggia, mentioned “Habemus Papam!” — “We’ve a pope!” in Latin — and introduced the winner was Prevost.
He spoke to the gang in Italian and Spanish, however not English, honoring Pope Francis and his ultimate salute to the gang on Easter Sunday.
“Greetings … to all of you, and particularly, to my beloved diocese of Chiclayo in Peru, the place a trustworthy folks have accompanied their bishop, shared their religion,” he mentioned in Spanish.
U.S. President Donald Trump mentioned it was “such an honor for our nation” for the brand new pope to be American.
“What higher honor can there be?” he mentioned. The president added that “we’re slightly bit stunned and we’re blissful.”
The final pope to take the title Leo was Leo XIII, an Italian who led the church from 1878 to 1903. That Leo softened the church’s confrontational stance towards modernity, particularly science and politics and laid the muse for contemporary Catholic social thought. His most well-known encyclical, Rerum Novarum of 1891, addressed staff’ rights and capitalism firstly of the economic revolution and was highlighted by the Vatican in explaining the brand new pope’s alternative of title.
An Augustinian pope
Vatican watchers mentioned Prevost’s determination to call himself Leo was notably important given the earlier Leo’s legacy of social justice and reform, suggesting continuity with a few of Francis’ chief issues.
“He’s persevering with a whole lot of Francis’ ministry,’’ mentioned Natalia Imperatori-Lee, the chair of non secular research at Manhattan College within the Bronx. However Imperatori-Lee additionally mentioned his election might ship a message to the U.S. church, which has been badly divided between conservatives and progressives, with a lot of the right-wing opposition to Francis coming from there.
“I feel it’s going to be thrilling to see a distinct sort of American Catholicism in Rome,’’ Imperatori-Lee mentioned.
Archbishop Bernard Hebda, of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, advised reporters he by no means thought he would see an American pope, given the questions of how one would navigate coping with a U.S. president, particularly Trump.
“How is it that the Holy Father is ready to take care of President Trump, for instance — whoever our American president? Would these ties be too shut or too distant?” he mentioned. “And so I simply by no means imagined that we’d have an American pope, and I’ve nice confidence that Pope Leo will do a beautiful job of navigating that.”
Leo was anticipated to rejoice Mass with cardinals within the Sistine Chapel on Friday, deliberate to ship his first Sunday midday blessing from the loggia of St. Peter’s and lined up an viewers with the media Monday within the Vatican auditorium, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni mentioned.
Past that, he has a potential first international journey on the finish of Could: Francis had been invited to journey to Turkey to commemorate the 1,700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea, a landmark occasion in Christian historical past and an necessary second in Catholic-Orthodox relations. Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the non secular chief of the world’s Orthodox Christians, welcomed Leo’s election and mentioned he hoped he would be part of the anniversary celebration.
The brand new pope was previously the prior normal, or chief, of the Order of St. Augustine, which was shaped within the thirteenth century as a group of “mendicant” friars — devoted to poverty, service and evangelization. Vatican Information mentioned Leo is the primary Augustinian pope.
Prevost’s election thrilled American college students finding out in Rome who occurred to be in St. Peter’s Sq. to witness historical past.
“That’s the primary American pope in historical past. How thrilling!” mentioned Alessandra Jarrett, a 21-year-old political science pupil at Rome’s John Cabot college. “Loopy that we’re in a position to be right here and see it, and this was even our final day at school.”
Sister Bernadette, a 50-year-old nun from Houston, Texas, was finding out spirituality in Rome on the identical college the place Prevost did graduate research, the Pontifical College of St. Thomas Aquinas, often known as the Angelicum.
“He touched the center of everybody, and he acknowledged the good work of Francis, which he desires to proceed embracing the world and embracing all of our brothers and sisters in Christ,” she mentioned.
The previous of Pope Leo
Francis moved Prevost from the Augustinian management again to Peru in 2014 to function the administrator and later bishop of Chiclayo.
He remained in that place, buying Peruvian citizenship in 2015, till Francis introduced him to Rome in 2023 to imagine each the bishops’ file and the presidency of the Pontifical Fee for Latin America. In that job he would have saved in common contact with the Catholic hierarchy within the a part of the world that counts essentially the most Catholics. Counting North, Central and South America, the area had 37 cardinal electors going into the conclave.
The bells of the cathedral in Peru’s capital of Lima and at Holy Identify Cathedral in downtown Chicago tolled after Prevost’s election was introduced. Individuals outdoors the Lima cathedral mentioned they needed Prevost to go to.
“For us Peruvians, it’s a supply of delight that it is a pope who represents our nation,” mentioned elementary college trainer Isabel Panez, who occurred to be close to the cathedral when the information was introduced. “We wish him to go to us right here in Peru.”
Giada Zampano, Helena Alves in Rome, Franklin Briceno in Lima, Peru and Colleen Barry in Schiavon, Italy contributed to this report.
Related Press faith protection receives assist by the AP’s collaboration with The Dialog US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely accountable for this content material.
This story has corrected the variety of Augustinian popes. Vatican Information says Pope Leo XIV is the primary Augustinian pope, not the seventh.
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