Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost was elected pope on the fourth ballot of a conclave that ran on 7 and 8 May 2025. He took the name Leo XIV.
Prevost was prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America. Of the 135 eligible cardinal electors, all but two attended. Cardinals Antonio Cañizares Llovera of Spain and John Njue of Kenya stayed away for health reasons, which left 133 voters and set the two-thirds majority at 89 votes. No conclave had ever had so many electors.
The vote followed the death of Pope Francis on 21 April 2025. Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Secretary of State and the most senior elector under 80, presided. The dean and vice-dean of the College of Cardinals, Giovanni Battista Re and Leonardo Sandri, were both over 80 and could not vote.
Who was in the running
Prevost was not the name most observers had put first. Some described him as a possible compromise candidate and an ally of Francis, but many called him a dark horse. His American nationality was widely seen as a stumbling block, since commentators felt the cardinals might shy away from adding to U.S. power after Donald Trump’s 2024 re-election.
Prediction markets leaned toward others. On the day Prevost was elected, Polymarket had Parolin at 37 per cent, Luis Antonio Tagle at 26 and Pierbattista Pizzaballa at 10. After the white smoke appeared, Parolin’s odds jumped to nearly 70 per cent, because many assumed a quick, four-round result meant the cardinals had settled on a consensus figure. They had, but not on him.
Anna Rowlands, a Vaticanologist, had called attempts to predict the outcome “pure speculation.” The old saying that he who enters the conclave as pope leaves it as a cardinal held again.
A crowded field of voters
The electors came from more than 70 countries, a wider mix than at any earlier conclave, and Francis had appointed 108 of them. Some did not speak Italian, the working language of the Roman Curia. Rules set in 1975 had pegged the maximum number of electors at 120, but popes John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis all went past it.
Preparations at the Domus Sanctae Marthae included opaque film on the windows and signal jammers to cut off Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and mobile networks. The building has 129 bedrooms, so some of the 133 electors and support staff were housed next door at Santa Marta Vecchia. Vatican firefighters installed the Sistine Chapel chimney on 2 May.
The Vatican Gendarmerie used its 650 security cameras, encrypted messaging and endpoint detection software to protect the process. Meals were simple dishes from Lazio and Abruzzo.
