American cardinal Robert Francis Prevost has been elected as the 267th Pope of the Catholic Church, taking the papal name Leo XIV in the process.
The choice of pope – and his papal name – have been confirmed through the traditional “habemus papam” announcement delivered from the central loggia of the Basilica of St Peter by the Protodeacon of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Dominique Mamberti.
Born in Chicago in 1955 – he turns 70 in September – Leo XIV is an Augustinian friar who has lived extensively in Latin America: he was appointed Pontifical Commission for Latin America in 2023. He is only the second pope to hail from the Americas after his direct predecessor, the late Pope Francis.
No pope has kept his birth name since Pope Marcellus II, who was pope in 1555, and the choice of papal name is often viewed as symbolising the approach to papacy that the new pope wishes to pursue.
The vast majority of popes have chosen papal names that have already been used, and may thus be seen to follow the footsteps of their eponymous predecessor. In contrast, Pope Francis’ choice of an unprecedented papal name, the name of St Francis of Assisi, was seen to reflect his wishes for “a church that is poor and for the poor.”
The last pope to take on the name Leo
