After being elected by cardinals from all across the world to lead the 1.4 billion Catholics worldwide, Robert Francis Prevost became the first American pope on Thursday, adopting the papal name Leo XIV.
Prevost stood on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, smiling, bowing, and waving with both hands while tens of thousands of people gathered in St. Peter’s Square shouted.
He said to the masses, “Peace by with you.”
When the bells of St. Peter’s Basilica and other churches in Rome rang out on the second day of the cardinals’ secret conclave to herald his election, white smoke billowed into the sky from the Sistine Chapel.
Thousands of people gathered at the square to view the basilica’s balcony, which was draped in red curtains for the 267th pope’s first public speech.
The chosen papal name of the new pontiff, who takes over from the reformer Pope Francis of Argentina, was introduced in Latin.
Several members of the catholic church and those physically present expressed their joy and excitement, “It’s an amazing feeling,” said an elated Joseph Brian, a 39-year-old chef from Belfast in Northern Ireland, who came with his mother to Rome for the spectacle.
The smoke was dark on Wednesday night and again at lunchtime on Thursday, and the tens of thousands of people who watched sighed in disappointment.
However, the white smoke that was released on Thursday soon after 6:00 p.m. (1600 GMT) confirmed that the Catholic Church had a new spiritual leader.
In accordance with custom, he now dons a papal cassock for the first time in the Room of Tears, where recently elected popes are allowed to express their feelings, before making his way back to the Sistine Chapel to have the cardinals swear allegiance.
As is customary, he now dons a papal cassock for the first time in the Room of Tears, where recently elected popes allow their emotions to run wild, before making his way back to the Sistine Chapel to hear the cardinals’ oath.
A senior cardinal will then accompany him on the balcony and proclaim to the assembled throng, “Habemus Papam” (We have a pope).
Following a brief address, the pope will bestow his first “Urbi et Orbi” blessing, which translates to “To the City and the World.”
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