Vatican City, May 8. The Catholic Cardinals broke with tradition on Thursday and chose the first American Pope, making the missionary born in Chicago, Robert Prevost, in the 267th Pontiff to lead the Catholic Church in a moment of global agitation and conflict.
Prevost, a 69 -year -old member of the Agustina religious order who dedicated his career to Minister in Peru, took the name of Leo XIV.
In his first words as the successor of Pope Francis, pronounced from the Lodge of the Basilica of San Pedro, León said: “Peace be with you”, and emphasized a message of “a disarmed and disarming peace”, as well as missionary dialogue and evangelization.
He carried the traditional red layer and papacy ornaments – a layer that Francisco had avoided in his choice in 2013 – suggesting a return to a certain degree of tradition after Francisco’s uninfidence. But by appointing León, the new Pope could also have wanted to point out a strong line of continuity: Brother León was a thirteenth -century friar who was a great companion of San Francisco de Asís, the homonym of the late Pope.
“Together, we must try to discover how to be a missionary church, a church that builds bridges, establishes dialogue, which is always open to receive – as in this square with open arms – to be able to receive all those who need our charity, our presence, dialogue and love,” León said in an almost perfect Italian.
Prevost had been one of the main candidates for the papacy, but for a long time there was a taboo against an American Pope, given the geopolitical power of the country that already exercised in the secular sphere. But Prevost was apparently eligible because he is also a Peruvian citizen and had lived for years in Peru, first as a missionary and then as a bishop, and the cardinals may have thought that the world’s world order could handle a Pope born in the United States.
Francisco, the first Latin American Pope in history, clearly set in Premost and, in many ways, considered him his heir. He sent Prevost to take care of a complicated diocese in Peru, then brought him to the Vatican in 2023 to serve as the powerful head of the office that examines the nominations of bishops around the world, one of the most important works of the Catholic Church. Earlier this year, Francisco elevated Prevost to the rank of Cardinal Mayor, giving him a prominence that few cardinals had before the conclave.
Since his arrival in Rome, Prevost has maintained a low public profile, but was well known to the men who tell. Significantly, he presided over one of the most revolutionary reforms that Francisco made, when he added three women to the voting block that decides what nominations of bishops are sent to the Pope.
Celebrating the new Pope
The crowd in the Plaza de San Pedro exploded in cheers on Thursday when the white smoke left the Sistine chapel shortly after 6 pm on the second day of the conclave, the most diverse geographically in history. The priests made the sign of the cross and the nuns cried as the crowd shouted: “Long live il potato!”
Agiteing flags around the world, tens of thousands of people waited more than an hour to know who had won and were surprised an hour later, when Cardinal Deacon Mayor appeared in the lodge and said “Habemus Papam!” – “We have Pope!” In Latin – and announced that the winner was Premost.
He spoke to the crowd in Italian and Spanish, but not in English, honoring Pope Francis and his final greeting to the crowd on Easter Sunday.
“Greetings … to all of you, and in particular, my dear Diocese of Chiclayo, in Peru, where a faithful people have accompanied his bishop, has shared his faith,” he said in Spanish.
US President Donald Trump declared that it is “an honor for our country” that the new Pope is American.
“What greater honor can there be?” Said the president. He added that “we are a little surprised and we are happy.”
The last Pope to take the name of León was Leo XIII, an Italian who directed the Church from 1878 to 1903. That lion softened the confrontational position of the Church towards modernity, especially science and politics, and laid the foundations for modern Catholic social thinking. His most famous encyclical, Rerum Novarum of 1891, addressed the rights of workers and capitalism at the beginning of the industrial revolution and was highlighted by the Vatican by explaining the choice of the name of the new Pope.
UN Pope Agustino
-Vatican’s observers said that Prevost’s decision to appoint León was particularly significant given the legacy of social justice and reform of the previous León, suggesting continuity with some of Francisco’s main concerns.
“It is continuing much of Francisco’s ministry,” said Natalia Imperatori-Lee, president of Religious Studies at the university of Manhattan at Bronx. But Imperator-Lee also said that his choice could send a message to the American church, which has been extremely divided between conservatives and progressive, and much of the right-wing opposition to Francisco came from the United States.
“I think it will be exciting to see a different type of American Catholicism in Rome,” said Imperator-Lee.
Archbishop Bernard Hebda, of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, told journalists that he never thought an American Pope would see, given the questions about how one would handle the deal with an American president, especially Trump.
“How is it that the Holy Father is able to deal with President Trump, for example, whoever our US president would be? Would those ties be too close or too distant?” He said. “And so I never imagined that we would have an American Pope, and I have great confidence that Pope León will do a wonderful job sailing that.”
León was scheduled to celebrate a mass with the cardinals in the Sistine Chapel on Friday, planned to give his first Sunday blessing at noon from the Lodge of San Pedro and had a audience scheduled with the media on Monday in the Vatican auditorium, said the spokesman of the Holy See, Matteo Bruni.
After that, he has a possible first trip abroad at the end of May: Francisco had been invited to travel to Turkey to commemorate the 1,700th anniversary of the first council of Nicea, a historical event in Christian history and an important moment in Catholic-Orthodox relations. The Ecumenical Patriarch Bartolomé I, the spiritual leader of the Orthodox Christians in the world, welcomed the election of León and said that he hoped to join the celebration of the anniversary.
The new Pope was previously the prior general, or leader, of the Order of St. Augustine, which formed in the thirteenth century as a community of “Mendicant” friars – given to poverty, service and evangelization. Vatican news reported that Leon is the first Augustinian Pope.
Premost’s choice excited American students who study in Rome and who were in the Plaza de San Pedro to witness the story.
“That is the first American Pope in history. How exciting!” Said Alessandra Jarrett, a 21 -year -old political science student at John Cabot University in Rome. “It’s crazy that we can be here and see it, and this was even our last day at school.”
Sister Bernadette, a 50 -year -old nun from Houston, Texas, was studying spirituality in Rome at the same university where Prevost did postgraduate studies, the Pontifical University of Santo Tomás de Aquino, known as El Angelicum.
“He touched everyone’s heart, and recognized Francisco’s great job, who wants to continue hugging the world and hugging all our brothers and sisters in Christ,” he said.
Pope Leon’s past
Francisco transferred Prevost of the Augustinian leadership back to Peru in 2014 to serve as administrator and then Bishop of Chiclayo.
He remained in that position, acquiring Peruvian citizenship in 2015, until Francisco took him to Rome in 2023 to assume both the dossier of bishops and the presidency of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America. In that work he would have maintained regular contact with the Catholic hierarchy in the part of the world that has more Catholics. Counting North America, Central and del Sur, the region had 37 Cardinals voters when entering the conclave.
The bells of the cathedral in the capital of Peru, Lima, and in the cathedral of the Holy Name in the center of Chicago they replied after the choice of Premost was announced. The people outside the Lima Cathedral expressed their desire for a papal visit at some point.
“For us, Peruvians, it is a pride that this is a Pope who represents our country,” said Isabel Panez, a primary school teacher who was near the cathedral when the news was announced. “We would like to visit us here in Peru.”
