Adi Joaquim Tolentino, Benedict Maravilla, and Joseph Azil Buena

Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost of the United States was elected on May 8 as the 267th Supreme Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church, taking the name Pope Leo XIV.

Photo Courtesy of Vatican News.

White smoke billowed from the Sistine Chapel chimney at 6:08 p.m. Rome time (12:08 a.m. Friday in Manila, Philippines), signaling the successful outcome of the Papal conclave after three rounds of voting by 133 cardinal electors representing 70 nationalities.

Over an hour later, Pope Leo XIV emerged on the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica to greet the faithful and deliver the traditional Urbi et Orbi, his first blessing to the crowd.

Born on September 14, 1955, on Chicago’s South Side, the 69-year-old cardinal assumes the papacy following Pope Francis, inheriting a global Church amid geopolitical unrest and calls for deep internal reform.

A member of the Order of Saint Augustine, Prevost was ordained a priest in 1982 and spent decades as a missionary in Peru, where he taught in seminaries and held various diocesan roles. He served as Bishop of Chiclayo from 2015 to 2023.

In 2023, Pope Francis appointed him prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, two influential positions central to shaping Church leadership worldwide.

He was appointed a cardinal in 2023 and promoted to the rank of cardinal-bishop in 2025.

His election comes on the eve of a Jubilee Year, a major spiritual celebration in the Catholic Church, marked by pilgrimages and religious events across the globe.

Pope Leo XIV is widely seen as a bridge between tradition and global pastoral outreach, with Vatican observers citing his missionary service and diplomatic skill as key to his election.

In a 2023 Vatican press conference, then-Cardinal Prevost spoke about the Church’s mission of inclusivity and pastoral outreach.

"Our work is to enlarge the tent and to let everyone know they are welcome inside the Church," he said.

Despite being viewed as a moderate, Pope Leo XIV holds conservative views on social issues, criticizing media sympathetic to same-sex relationships and non-traditional families, according to The New York Times, which raises questions about how inclusivity is interpreted within the church leadership.

The Washington Post also reported that the conclave overlooked past allegations of his mishandling of clerical abuse cases in Peru and the U.S.

He is the first pope from the United States in the Church’s nearly 2,000-year history.