‘Peace be with you’: Vatican elects first-ever U.S. pope to lead Catholic church, Leo XIV

On the second day of conclave, the Vatican‘s 133 cardinals have chosen the first-ever American to lead the Catholic Church in 2025.

The 267th pontiff is Robert Francis Prevost, who has taken the name Pope Leo XIV. In 2,000 years of Christianity, Prevost is the first pope from America, and the possibility exists that the choice was made to enable the Vatican to weather a relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump.

Chicago-born Leo, 69, delivered his first speech today as pontiff from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, as reported by The Wall Street Journal.

“Peace be with you,” he said. In Italian and with visible emotion, Leo called for world peace and recalled with gratitude his predecessor, the late Pope Francis.

Leo’s speech indicated his leadership may continue that of Francis’s with a more open and global church.

“We must try together to be a missionary church, a church that builds bridges and dialogue, always open, like this square, to receive with open arms everyone who needs our charity, our presence,” Leo said before leading followers in the Hail Mary prayer.

Trump posted on social media that he looks forward to meeting the new pope, which “will be a very meaningful moment.”

“It is such an honor to realize that he is the first American Pope. What excitement, and what a great honor for our country.”

Leo publicly appeared at odds with the Trump Administration as a cardinal. In February, he posted on social media that U.S. Vice President JD Vance was wrong to use church teaching to justify a crackdown on immigration in America.

“JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others,” Leo posted in February.

Leo’s background includes many years working in Latin America. He was a missionary as bishop of Chiclayo in northern Peru where he saw first-hand economic forces that made Peruvians migrate to the U.S.

Catholics were reportedly surprised by Leo’s election as pope, because they expected the election of a well known cardinal such as the Italian prelates Pietro Parolin or Matteo Zuppi.

“He is someone the progressives can feel comfortable with, and that conservatives can feel comfortable with,” Acton Institute President Emeritus Father Robert Sirico said.

The new pope’s name highlights two themes of his first speech: peace and justice.

According to professor of theology at the University of Dayton, Ohio Vincent Miller, the new pope’s name invokes Leo XIII, who reigned in the late 19th century and “who spoke for the working class during the industrial revolution and fought for the rights of the church against authoritarian states.”

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