Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost was elected pope on the fourth ballot, after a conclave that lasted a little more than 24 hours. He took the name Leo XIV.
Pope Francis had died on April 21, 2025. The conclave opened on May 7 and closed the next day. Of 135 cardinals eligible to vote, 133 came. Two stayed away for health reasons: Antonio Cañizares Llovera of Spain and John Njue of Kenya. With 133 electors, the two-thirds majority was set at 89 votes, and it was the largest group of cardinals ever to vote in a conclave.
A large and unfamiliar electorate
The electors came from more than 70 countries, and 108 of them had been made cardinals by Francis. Some did not know one another. The New York Times noted that this made a fast result a real challenge, given the number of contenders and the splits over where the church should go next. Some camps wanted to continue Francis’s inclusive agenda, others a return to a more conservative doctrinal path.
Prevost was not the favorite. He ran the Dicastery for Bishops, the Vatican office for bishop appointments, and he led the Pontifical Commission for Latin America. Commentators had called him a dark horse, and some thought his American nationality would count against him. Supporters pitched him as a “dignified middle of the road.”
On the day he was elected, Polymarket had Pietro Parolin at 37 percent and Luis Antonio Tagle at 26 percent.
The man and the name
Prevost is 69 and was born in Chicago. He spent much of his career as a missionary in South America, served as a bishop in Peru, and holds Peruvian citizenship as well as American. Francis made him a cardinal in 2023. He is the first pope from the United States, and the 267th overall.
His brother John, 71, said he had heard the odds in Las Vegas were 18 to 1. When he called, the cardinal waved it off. “No way, not going to happen,” John Prevost recalled him saying.
Matteo Bruni, the Vatican spokesman, told reporters the name was a deliberate nod to Leo XIII, who led the church from 1878 to 1903. That Leo wrote the 1891 encyclical “Rerum Novarum” defending the rights of workers to a living wage and became known as the “pope of the workers.” Bruni said the choice referred to “the lives of men and women, to their work, even in an age marked by artificial intelligence.”
Leo XIV spoke from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica to tens of thousands of people. He called for peace and for “a united church, always seeking peace and justice,” and paid tribute to Francis. President Donald Trump called the election “a great honor” for the United States.
Sources
- 2025 conclave – Wikipedia
- May 8, 2025 Leo XIV elected as first American pope | CNN
- Robert Francis Prevost, Now Leo XIV, Is First American Pope (Published 2025)
