Robert Prevost elected as first American pope and takes the name Leo XIV

(CNN) — Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost of the United States has been elected the 267th pope and has stepped onto the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica as the new leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.

He’s now known as Pope Leo XIV.

Prevost, 69, from Chicago, Illinois, is the first ever pope from the United States.

In his first words as pope, a visibly emotional Leo said to the crowd in St. Peter’s Square: “Peace be with you all.”

Addressing the crowd in St. Peter’s Square, Leo paid tribute to the late pontiff Francis, urging the crowd to remember his predecessor’s legacy before outlining his vision for the Catholic Church.

“We have to seek together to be a missionary church. A church that builds bridges and dialogue,” he said. Speaking in Italian to thousands of Catholic faithful, Leo called on people to “show our charity” to others “and be in dialog with love.”

Leo was chosen just two days after a group of 133 Cardinals gathered in conclave to select a new pontiff.

That timeline matches the previous two gatherings, suggesting that Prevost quickly impressed his peers during the secretive process.

Francis and Benedict XVI were both revealed in the evening of the conclave’s second day, while John Paul II, the longest-reigning pope of modern times, was selected on the third day in 1978.

‘An exceptional leader’

A leader with global experience, Prevost spent much of his career as a missionary in South America and most recently led a powerful Vatican office for bishop appointments. He is expected to build on Francis’ reforms.

Prevost worked for a decade in Trujillo, Peru, and was later appointed bishop of Chiclayo, another Peruvian city, where he served from 2014 to 2023. In 2015, he also received Peruvian citizenship.

The new pontiff is a member of the Augustinian religious order – which he also led for more than a decade as their prior general, which has given him leadership experience of leading an order spread across the world.

Considered a highly capable and accomplished leader, Prevost most recently led the powerful Vatican office for new bishop appointments, the Dicastery for Bishops, assessing candidates and making recommendations to the late pope. He also served as the president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.

While it is often said cardinal electors would always shy away from choosing a pope from the US, due to America’s outsized global political influence, Prevost’s long experience in Peru may have mitigated those fears among the electors.

“He’s somebody that, even though he’s from the West, would be very attentive to the needs of a global church,” said Elise Allen, CNN’s Vatican analyst. “You’re talking about somebody who spent over half of his ecclesial career abroad as a missionary in Peru.”

Allen added that he is seen as an apt leader in Vatican circles because “he’s able to accomplish things without necessarily being authoritarian about the way he did things.”

“Prevost is somebody who is seen as an exceptional leader. From very young, he was appointed to leadership roles,” Allen said. “He’s seen as somebody who is calm and balanced, who is even-handed, and who is very clear on what he thinks needs to be done… but he’s not overly forceful in trying to make that happen.”

Prevost earned his bachelor’s in mathematics from Villanova University in Pennsylvania and went on receive his diploma in theology from the Catholic Theological Union of Chicago.

He was later sent to Rome to study canon law at the Pontifical Saint Thomas Aquinas University and was ordained as a priest in June 1982. Later in his career, he taught canon law in the seminary in Trujillo, Peru.

In an interview with Vatican News shortly after he became the leader of the Dicastery for Bishops, Prevost said: “I still consider myself a missionary. My vocation, like that of every Christian, is to be a missionary, to proclaim the Gospel wherever one is.”

Days of celebration

The coming days are for celebration; Leo’s name will be uttered in homilies and masses across the Catholic world, and will spark particularly joyous scenes in his home country. Adding to festivities, and to the new pope’s diary commitments, is the fact that 2025 is a jubilee year for the church – a special celebration announced by Pope John Paul II 25 years ago, which sees a busy schedule of Vatican-organized events.

But leading the largest Christian denomination through an unpredictable era will require difficult and consequential decisions. The new pope inherits a church whose image and ambitions were transformed by its predecessor; Francis pulled the priorities of the church away from social issues such as abortion, homosexuality, gender roles and contraception, advocating instead for the world’s poor, displaced and needy, and instilling a mission anchored in altruism.

Whether or not to continue that trajectory will be a defining choice for the new pontiff. Francis’ rejection of opulence and his softer tone on social issues was praised by some Western leaders, but there remains a faction in the church advocating for a stricter line on questions of sex, gender, marriage and migration.

Asked about the contributions of three women who were made members of the Dicastery for Bishops, Prevost told Vatican News: “I think their appointment is more than just a gesture on the part of the Pope to say that there are now women here, too. There is a real, genuine, and meaningful participation that they offer at our meetings when we discuss the dossiers of candidates.”

He must also choose carefully when to intervene on the world stage. Francis became increasingly political in the final years of his papacy, making the case for the rights of migrants, urging a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, and suggesting – to the ire of Kyiv – that Ukraine should wave “the white flag” and make concessions to end Russia’s war in the country.

These ongoing conflicts, and the rise of populism and authoritarianism around the world, set a complicated context in which the new pope – himself an important figure in global diplomacy – will operate.

And he must deal with crises from within, too. Francis’ failure to bring a close to the years-long scandal of child sexual abuse in the church will also reverberate through his successor’s papacy. Though he spoke defensively about his record on the matter, and took some important steps to tackle systemic issues involving abuse, the previous pope was accused by survivors’ groups of failing to hold accountable bishops and cardinals accused of covering up abuse.

Previously addressing the responsibility of combating clerical abuse, Prevost told Vatican News: “There are places where good work has already been done for years and the rules are being put into practice. At the same time, I believe that there is still much to learn.”

Last year, Francis’ commission for child protection said in its first report that parts of the church are still failing to ensure that abuse is properly reported, and raised concerns about a “lack of transparency” in how the Vatican handled cases.

CNN’s Kara Fox contributed reporting.