American Cardinal Robert Prevost Elected Pope, Takes Name Leo XIV

COLOMBO (News 1st); The Conclave has elected Robert Francis Cardinal Prevost as the 267th Bishop of Rome.

The new pope was announced to the waiting crowds by Cardinal Protodeacon Dominique Mamberti.

"WE HAVE A POPE, The Most Eminent and Most Reverend Lord Robert Francis, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church Prevost, who has taken the name Leo XIV"

American Cardinal Robert Prevost will be taking the papal name Pope Leo XIV. He becomes the first American to ascend to the papacy.

Pope Leo, 69, appeared before an ecstatic crowd in St. Peter’s Square, where thousands erupted in applause and chants as he stepped onto the Vatican balcony for the first time as pontiff.

"May peace be with all of you," he said with calm conviction, offering his first public words to the world as pope.

The first Augustinian Pope, Robert Prevost - now Leo XIV - is the second Roman Pontiff from the Americas after Pope Francis.

However, unlike Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the 69-year-old Robert Francis Prevost is from the northern part of the American continent, though he spent many years as a missionary in Peru before being elected head of the Augustinians for two consecutive terms.

The new Bishop of Rome was born on September 14, 1955, in Chicago, Illinois, to Louis Marius Prevost, of French and Italian descent, and Mildred Martínez, of Spanish descent. He has two brothers, Louis Martín and John Joseph.

Source: Vatican