Robert Francis Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, is the first American pope in history.
He will begin work immediately, with an 11 AM mass in the Sistine Chapel today, his first Sunday noon blessing, and media talks on Monday.
Leo has been a missionary in Peru (he even has Peruvian citizenship), a bishop, and an archbishop.
He is 69 years old, is from Chicago and studied Mathematics at Villanova before becoming ordained.
After white smoke billowed out of the Vatican chimney, Leo came out smiling and waving to the crowd in St Peter’s Square, wearing traditional papal garb.
Leo thanked Francis in his speech and repeated his predecessor’s call for a church that is engaged with the modern world and “is always looking for peace, charity and being close to people, especially those who are suffering.
Despite being American, this doesn’t mean he’ll be skipping hand in hand with Trump, as his comments have already shown:
In February, responding to Vance’s suggestion that there are different hierarchies of Christian love — family, then nation, then the rest of the world — Prevost posted on X, “JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others.”
In 2017, when Trump was president for the first time, he shared a post from a Jesuit priest that was critical of banning Syrian refugees. “What an immoral nation we are becoming. Jesus weeps,” the post reads.
He also supports the integration of migrants. Many have said that an American was chosen both to influence and counterbalance Trump – the first pontiff to use the name Leo, whose papacy ended in 461, met Attila the Hun and persuaded him not to attack Rome. Make of that what you will.
Indeed, those who choose the name Leo tend to be progressive reformers — although, as far as the eye can see, Leo seems to be someone trapped exactly in the paradox that the Catholic Church experiences in modernity: he’s evasive about a clear stance on LGBT rights and hems and haws about abuse within the church.
