{"id":22338,"date":"2025-05-08T10:16:38","date_gmt":"2025-05-08T16:16:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/robert-prevost-first-pope-from-us-in-history-of-the-catholic-church-takes-the-name-leo-xiv\/"},"modified":"2025-05-08T16:16:38","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T16:16:38","slug":"robert-prevost-first-pope-from-us-in-history-of-the-catholic-church-takes-the-name-leo-xiv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/robert-prevost-first-pope-from-us-in-history-of-the-catholic-church-takes-the-name-leo-xiv\/","title":{"rendered":"Robert Prevost, first pope from US in history of the Catholic Church, takes the name Leo XIV"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Newly
Newly elected Pope Leo XIV appears at the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican on Thursday. (Alessandra Tarantino\/Associated Press)<\/span>dur-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

VATICAN CITY \u2014 Robert Prevost,<\/a> a missionary who spent his career ministering in Peru and took over the Vatican\u2019s powerful office of bishops, was elected the first pope<\/a> from the United States in the 2,000-year history of the Catholic Church.<\/p>\n

Prevost, a 69-year-old member of the Augustinian religious order, took the name Leo XIV.<\/p>\n

In his first words as Pope Francis\u2019 successor, uttered from the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica, Leo said, \u201cPeace be with you,\u201d and emphasized a message of peace, dialogue and missionary evangelization. He wore the traditional red cape of the papacy \u2014 a cape that Francis had eschewed on his election in 2013.<\/p>\n

\"Faithful
Faithful holds an American flag following the election of Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican, Thursday, May 8, 2025. (AP Photo\/Andrew Medichini)<\/span>dur-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Prevost had been a leading candidate for the papacy, but there had long been a taboo against a U.S. pope, given the country’s geopolitical power already wielded in the secular sphere. But Prevost, a Chicago native, was seemingly eligible because he\u2019s also a Peruvian citizen and lived for years in Peru, first as a missionary and then as an archbishop.<\/p>\n

Pope Francis clearly had his eye on Prevost and in many ways saw him as his heir apparent. He brought Prevost to the Vatican in 2023 to serve as the powerful head<\/a> of the office that vets bishop nominations from around the world, one of the most important jobs in the Catholic Church. And in January he elevated him into the senior ranks of cardinals. As a result, Prevost had a prominence going into the conclave that few other cardinals had.<\/p>\n

\"Newly
Newly elected Pope Leo XIV appears at the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Thursday, May 8, 2025. (AP Photo\/Alessandra Tarantino)<\/span>dur-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The crowd in St. Peter\u2019s Square<\/a> erupted in cheers when white smoke poured out of the Sistine Chapel on the second day of the conclave. Priests made the sign of the cross and nuns wept as the crowd shouted \u201cViva il papa!\u201d<\/p>\n

Waving flags from around the world, tens of thousands of people waited to learn who had won and were shocked when an hour later, the senior cardinal deacon appeared on the loggia and said \u201cHabemus Papam!\u201d and announced the winner was Prevost.<\/p>\n

He spoke to the crowd in Italian and Spanish, but not English.<\/p>\n

The last pope to take the name Leo was Leo XIII, an Italian who led the church from 1878 to 1903. That Leo softened the church\u2019s confrontational stance toward modernity, especially science and politics and laid the foundation for modern Catholic social thought, most famously with his 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum, which addressed workers\u2019 rights and capitalism.<\/p>\n

\"People
People react as the newly elected Pope Leo XIV appears on the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Thursday, May 8, 2025. (AP Photo\/Emilio Morenatti)<\/span>dur-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Eyes on the chimney<\/strong><\/div>\n

Earlier Thursday, large school groups joined the mix of humanity awaiting the outcome in St. Peter’s Square. They blended in with people participating in preplanned Holy Year pilgrimages and journalists from around the world who have descended on Rome to document the election.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe wait is marvelous!\u201d said Priscilla Parlante, a Roman.<\/p>\n

Pedro Deget, 22, a finance student from Argentina, said he and his family visited Rome during the Argentine pope’s pontificate<\/a> and were hoping for a new pope in Francis’ image.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrancis did well in opening the church to the outside world, but on other fronts maybe he didn\u2019t do enough. We\u2019ll see if the next one will be able to do more,\u201d Deget said from the piazza.<\/p>\n

The Rev. Jan Dominik Bogataj, a Slovene Franciscan friar, was more critical of Francis. He said if he were in the Sistine Chapel, he’d be voting for Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem who is on many papal contender lists.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has clear ideas, not much ideology. He\u2019s a direct, intelligent and respectful man,\u201d Bogataj said from the square. \u201cMost of all, he\u2019s agile.”<\/p>\n

Some of the cardinals had said they expected a short conclave.<\/p>\n

For much of the past century, the conclave has needed between three and 14 ballots to find a pope. John Paul I \u2014 the pope who reigned for 33 days in 1978 \u2014 was elected on the fourth ballot. His successor, John Paul II, needed eight. Francis was elected on the fifth in 2013.<\/p>\n

\"Newly
Newly elected Pope Leo XIV, left, formerly Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, appears on the central loggia of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican shortly after his election as the 267th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church, Thursday, May 8, 2025. (AP Photo\/Domenico Stinellis)<\/span>dur-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
The conclave process<\/strong><\/div>\n

The cardinals opened the secretive, centuries-old ritual Wednesday afternoon, participating in a rite more theatrical than even Hollywood could create. Bright red cassocks, Swiss Guards standing at attention, ancient Latin chants and oaths preceded the slamming shut of the Sistine Chapel doors to seal the cardinals off from the outside world.<\/p>\n

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the 70-year-old secretary of state under Francis who had been considered a leading contender<\/a> to succeed him as pope, assumed leadership of the proceedings as the most senior cardinal under age 80 eligible to participate.<\/p>\n

The voting followed a strict choreography, dictated by church law.<\/p>\n

Each cardinal writes his choice on a piece of paper inscribed with the words \u201cEligo in summen pontificem\u201d \u2014 \u201cI elect as supreme pontiff.\u201d They approach the altar one by one and say: \u201cI call as my witness, Christ the Lord who will be my judge, that my vote is given to the one who, before God, I think should be elected.\u201d<\/p>\n

The folded ballot is placed on a round plate and tipped into a silver and gold urn. Once cast, the ballots are opened one by one by three different \u201cscrutineers,\u201d cardinals selected at random who write down the names and read them aloud.<\/p>\n

The scrutineers, whose work is checked by other cardinals called revisers, then add up the results of each round of balloting and write them on a separate sheet of paper, which is preserved in the papal archives.<\/p>\n

As the scrutineer reads out each name, he pierces each ballot with a needle through the word \u201cEligo.” All the ballots are then bound together with thread, and the bundle is put aside and burned in the chapel stove along with a chemical to produce the smoke.<\/p>\n

\"People
People react as the newly elected Pope Leo XIV appears on the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Thursday, May 8, 2025. (AP Photo\/Emilio Morenatti)<\/span>dur-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

elected Pope Leo XIV appears at the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican on Thursday. (Alessandra Tarantino\/Associated Press)dur-i-syn VATICAN CITY \u2014 Robert Prevost, a missionary who spent his career ministering in Peru and took over the Vatican\u2019s powerful office of bishops, was elected the first pope from the United States in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22339,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-22338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22338\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22338"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=22338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}