Share
8th May 2025
06:39pm BST
The conclave is over, and Cardinal Robert Prevost has been elected as the new leader of the Catholic Church.
Prevost is the first pope to be from the United States, hailing from the city of Chicago.
He will take the name Pope Leo. Prevost is the 267th pope to lead the Catholic Church.
Prevost hails from Chicago in the United States, and holds both American and Peruvian citizenship.
The 69-year-old was appointed to Dicastery for Bishops in 2023 by Pope Francis, which oversees the selection of bishops across the globe.
He also serves as Pontifical Commission for Latin America, which is home to nearly 40 per cent of the Catholics in the world.
Although he is relatively inexperienced and assumed these roles in 2023, he was the main 'Bergoglian' candidate - meaning he was a close ally of the late Pope Francis.
He is considered to be a moderate candidate, but has expressed anti-LGBTQ+ views.
The New York Times reports that he was critical of media that held “sympathy for beliefs and practices that are at odds with the gospel,” such as “homosexual lifestyle” and “alternative families comprised of same-sex partners and their adopted children.”
The papal conclave looked past allegations Prevost mishandled or failed to act on sexual abuse cases involving priests in both Peru and the United States, reports The Washington Post.
Prevost also champions ground work as being important.
“One must not give in to the temptation to live isolated, separated in a palace, satisfied with a certain social level or a certain level within the church," he told Vatican News in a previous interview.
“The authority we have is to serve, to accompany priests, to be pastors and teachers.”
