After four rounds of voting, and a period of barely 24 hours, white smoke rose above the Sistine Chapel to indicate that a pope had been elected. The cardinals agreed by a majority of at least 89—2/3 of the conclave—to elect American Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost as the 267th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church.
The wait was therefore relatively short—a conclave similar to that which led to the election of Benedict XVI in 2005.
The smoke was spotted by the faithful at 18:07 CET. The name was not revealed until just over an hour after the smoke, with the announcement by Cardinal Mamberti, protodiac of Saint Peter’s Basilica, who, in accordance with protocol, pronounced the consecrated formula beginning with the words “Habemus papam.”
An American of French origin, Prevost was prefect for the Congregation of Bishops and versed in canon law. A very discreet man, he was unsurprisingly not among the most frequently mentioned papabile—even though his name had surreptitiously appeared in the Italian press yesterday.
Cardinal Prevost, aged 69, has chosen Leo XIV as his pontifical name, thus following in the footsteps of Saint Leo the Great and Leo XIII, the pope who initiated advances in the Church’s social doctrine in the industrial age with the encyclical Rerum Novarum and who established papal infallibility. He is also known for having dedicated no less than eleven encyclicals to the Marian devotion of the rosary.
In his first appearance in St. Peter’s Square, the new pope appeared smiling and calm, in the traditional pontifical garb that Pope Francis had rejected on the same occasion. His speech before his first blessing focused on peace and mission.
