New Pope Elected: What We Know About the First American to Occupy the Holy See

The Vatican has announced the election of a new Pope. The head of the Roman Catholic Church is 69-year-old American Cardinal Robert Prevost. He took the name Leo XIV. About the new Pope and how the elections were held, Air force.

Photo: Marco Iacobucci | Dreamstime.com

The news of the new head of the Roman Catholic Church was greeted with delight by people in St. Peter's Square on the evening of May 8. According to police, about 40 people gathered there.

Black smoke had previously billowed from the Sistine Chapel chimney twice: on Wednesday, May 7, in the evening, and on Thursday, May 8, in the morning, when two rounds of voting were held.

A two-thirds majority is required to elect the Pope, in this case at least 89. A total of 133 cardinals from around the world participate in the conclave.

On the subject: Pope Francis Dies: Ancient Prophecy Says He Was Last Pontiff Before End of World

How the Greatest Conclave Was Held

The cardinals gathered for the conclave, which was called after the death of Pope Francis on April 21.

Throughout history, conclaves have lasted from a few days to several months, depending on the degree of disagreement over the candidates for the Holy See.

In recent years, the process has taken less time – the two previous conclaves, in 2005 and 2013, lasted two days.

The current conclave is the largest in history. The College of Cardinals has 252 members, but only cardinals under 80 can vote.

There are 135 such cardinals in total, but two were unable to take part in the vote due to illness.

The youngest participant in the conclave was the 45-year-old Bishop of Melbourne of Ukrainian origin, Mykola Bychok.

On the morning of May 7, the conclave participants celebrated Mass and then walked in procession to the Sistine Chapel.

In the chapel, the cardinals took an oath of secrecy about what would happen in the process of electing a new pontiff.

After this, outsiders left the chapel and the doors were closed - the moment the phrase extra omnes (“everyone out”) was pronounced marked the beginning of the conclave.

During the conclave, the cardinals had no contact with the outside world; they were effectively isolated in the Sistine Chapel until they elected a pontiff.

All the interior spaces where the cardinals gather, live and eat were searched for microphones and other electronic devices - the voting was conducted in strict secrecy.

The longest conclave in history lasted almost three years, from 1268 to 1271. Then Gregory X was elected Pope.

The shortest conclave lasted only 10 hours and ended with the election of Pope Julius II in 1503.

The First American Pope

Cardinal Robert Prevost, who became pontiff, has dual citizenship. He is originally from Chicago, but spent most of his career as a missionary in Peru, so he is a citizen of that country as well.

Here's what a Vatican source told the Telegraph about the new Pope: "He wasn't an obvious choice, but he knows everyone, spent 30 years in the missions, speaks several languages. His years in Peru make him the least 'American' of all the American cardinals. But he understands America and can speak to its people, and that's important in the age of Trump."

Robert Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, was born on September 14, 1955, in Chicago.

His father, Louis Marius Prevost, was a World War II veteran of French and Italian descent, and his mother, Mildred Martinez, was of Spanish descent.

It is interesting that in Russian-language media the new Pope's surname is given in the French manner of pronunciation - Prevost. However, the official Vatican website in its message in Russian calls the pontiff Robert Prevost (that is, with the letters "s" and "t" at the end).

Prevost received his secondary education at the Augustinian Order's minor seminary in 1973. After completing his bachelor's degree in mathematics at Villanova University in 1977, Robert joined the Augustinian Order and was ordained a priest on June 19, 1982.

The current Pope received a master's degree in theology from the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, as well as a licentiate and doctorate in canon law from the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Rome.

In 1985, Prévost joined the Augustinian mission in Peru, and since then his life has been closely linked to that country.

Pope Leo XIV is a polyglot: he speaks English, Spanish, Italian, French and Portuguese, and reads Latin and German.

In 2015, Robert Prevost received Peruvian citizenship and led the diocese in the city of Chiclayo until 2023, when Pope Francis appointed him head of the Dicastery for Bishops, the body responsible for reviewing candidates for the highest ecclesiastical posts around the world.

In an interview with Vatican News shortly after his appointment to Rome, the current pontiff said at the time: "I still consider myself a missionary. My vocation, like that of every Christian, is to be a missionary, to proclaim the Gospel in every corner of the world."

He also headed the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, the region with the largest Catholic population in the world.

Before the election, it was thought that Prevost's relative youth might work against him - the cardinals might not elect a pope whose pontificate would last two decades or longer.

Why Prevost Criticized White House Policy

US President Donald Trump congratulated the first American Pope in history, noting that it was a great honor for America.

However, the world media are noting that Prevost criticized the policies of the new American administration on his social networks, at least for their attitude toward migrants.

One post Prevost retweeted in 2018 (during Trump's first term) read: "There is nothing remotely Christian, American, or morally justifiable about a policy that takes children from their parents and puts them in cages. It is being done in our name, and the shame falls on all of us."

Another repost by Prevost rhetorically asks whether the US administration sees the suffering caused by its policies towards illegal immigrants.

In February this year, he argued with US Vice President J.D. Vance, who said: "There is a Christian understanding: first you love your family, then your neighbor, then your community, then your fellow citizens, and only then the rest of the world. Many on the far left have completely turned that upside down."

Robert Prevost shared a National Catholic Reporter column titled, "J.D. Vance Is Wrong: Jesus Doesn't Ask Us to Rank His Love."

7 Awkward Questions About the Pope

What exactly does the Pope do?

The Pope is the spiritual leader of all faithful Catholics, of whom there are more than 1,4 billion people worldwide.

To manage the household affairs, the head of the Holy See is entitled to a small personal staff of nuns who run the Pope's household, cook and clean. He may have a personal valet or butler - if the pontiff himself so desires.

The Pope also has his own team of speechwriters. One of his most important duties as head of the Church is to meet face-to-face at least once every five years with each of his bishops—that is, with the heads of all the Catholic parishes, of which there are more than 5000 worldwide. That’s about 1000 audiences a year, or about 20 a week.

Nowadays, the Pope's duties also include his numerous trips abroad.

Can the Pope be married?

There have been precedents in history when the Holy See was headed by a married man - after all, according to Christian teaching, the Apostle Peter himself, the first to head the Roman see, was married.

However, these days the chances of a married man being elected head of the church at a conclave are virtually zero.

In theory, any baptized Catholic male can become the head of the Catholic Church, but since Urban VI was elected in 1378, the last 64 times the cardinals gathered in conclave have chosen a new pope from among their own ranks.

To date, none of the cardinals participating in the conclave are married, since upon ordination (entry into the priesthood), Catholic priests, as a rule, take a vow of celibacy and are obliged to remain celibate for the rest of their lives.

Of course, there are exceptions - they are mostly done for already married men in Eastern Rite Catholicism, as well as some Anglican priests who have converted to Catholicism.

Does Dad get a salary?

There have been repeated reports in the press that Pope Francis allegedly transferred his entire salary to charitable organizations.

In 2021, the Vatican tried to put an end to such speculation by officially announcing that “Pope Francis does not receive and never has received any salary.”

After his election, Pope Francis also renounced some of the privileges that came with being a pontiff. In particular, he moved into the Vatican not in the luxurious papal apartments that his predecessor had vacated after his abdication, but in the House of Saint Martha, where the Vatican administration had previously usually temporarily housed guests of the Holy See.

After his predecessor Benedict XVI retired in 2013, citing declining health, some media outlets reported that the retired Pope had been awarded a lifetime pension.

For how long is a new Pope elected?

The vast majority of pontiffs, like Pope Francis, elected in 2013, lead the Roman Catholic Church until their death.

Exceptions to this rule are extremely rare. Before Benedict XVI's abdication, the last time this happened was in 1415, when Gregory XII had to leave the Roman See, and the last time Pope Celestine V voluntarily renounced the Holy See was in 1294.

Who can become Pope?

According to canon law (the system of religious laws that govern the Christian church), any person who meets the following requirements can be elected pontiff:

• Any competent baptized Catholic male.
• In theory, any Catholic priest or even layman can be elected head of the Roman Catholic Church, although for the past 500-odd years the Pope has been elected from among the cardinals.
• If the chosen candidate is not yet a bishop, he must be ordained immediately before ascending to the Holy See.

Unofficially, there is another requirement for the future Pope: he must be a decent and peace-loving person.

Why does Dad wear red shoes?

In the Catholic tradition, the color red symbolizes the martyrdom and Passion of Christ on earth – the suffering, arrest, trial and crucifixion of Jesus Christ, as described in the New Testament.

Pope Benedict XVI, like many of his predecessors on the Holy See, followed the tradition of wearing red shoes.

However, his successor Pope Francis chose to wear black shoes after his election. In this symbolic gesture, observers saw his characteristic rejection of excessive pomp and circumstance in favor of simplicity.

When the Pope's body was laid out for the faithful to bid farewell, the shoes on his feet were still the same black color.

For example, Pope John Paul II reportedly wore burgundy shoes from time to time. And the American magazine Esquire writes that he sometimes wore "brown loafers."

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Why does the Catholic Church need a Pope?

The Gospel of Matthew (chapter 18, verse 16) tells how Jesus gives one of the first disciples to join him, the fisherman Simon, a new name - Peter, which in Greek means "stone" or "rock", and promises that "on this rock I will build My Church."

Catholics regard the figure of the Pope as the successor of Saint Peter, one of Jesus' disciples.

Thus, in Catholicism, the Archbishop of Rome is considered the leader of the entire Church, supporting and preserving the covenants of Christ.

The faithful come from all over the world to hear the Pope speak in St. Peter's Square. And the Pontiff's trips abroad invariably draw huge crowds - another sign of how important the Pope is to Catholics around the world.

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