Conclave updates: Cardinal Robert Prevost named Pope Leo XIV

Thanks for joining us. For more coverage of today’s events, read our profile of Pope Leo XIV here.

Read about how world leaders reacted to his election here.

Or learn more about what life is like for cardinals during a conclave here.

We’ll soon be closing this live page. Here were today’s top events:

• With a puff of white smoke, the Vatican announced a new leader of the Catholic church, US-Peruvian citizen Cardinal Robert Prevost.
• Prevost assumed the name Pope Leo XIV, in what experts say signals a commitment to workers and an emphasis on “global Catholicism”.
• In his first address from St Peter’s Basilica, Pope Leo called for “a disarmed peace and a disarming peace”, while signalling he would continue some of Pope Francis’s progressive approach to issues like migration and climate change.
• Congratulations rolled in from across the world, with an official from the only Catholic church in Gaza appealing for the new pope to “give importance to Gaza and its peace”.

The far-right personality, who reportedly remains an influential voice for the president, has called the new pope “just another Marxist puppet in the Vatican”.

She described Pope Leo as “anti-Trump, anti-MAGA, pro-open Borders, and a total Marxist like Pope Francis”.

“Catholics don’t have anything good to look forward to,” she said.

Loomer, an internet personality who regularly pushes conspiracy theories, has no official position within the Trump administration, but has reportedly been involved in several of the president’s recent personnel decisions.

Pope Leo is just one of 34 popes out of 266 to have belonged to a religious order.

Such orders are a community of Catholics, which can include priests, nuns, monks and or lay people, dedicated to a particular type of mission and spirituality.

A core value for the Order of St Augustine, which traces its history to the 13th-century Tuscany region, is to “live together in harmony, being of one mind and one heart on the way to God”.

The Augustinians are mendicant, meaning they value travel and serving poor communities. They are named after St Augustine of Hippo, a theologian of Berber origin who died in the year 430.

Pope Francis was the first pope from the Jesuit religious order ever, and the first in more than a century and a half to come from any religious order.

US President Donald Trump may have congratulated Prevost and highlighted his US citizenship, but Pope Leo XIV has also held a Peruvian nationality since 2015.

In 2014, he served as the administrator and later archbishop of Chiclayo and remained in that position until Pope Francis summoned him to Rome in 2023 to take up the office that vets bishop nominations from around the world, one of the most important jobs in the Catholic Church.

Leo XIV addressed the people of Chiclayo, which sits just 14km (9 miles) from Peru’s northern Pacific coast and is among the country’s most populous cities, while standing on the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica for the first time as pope.

“Greetings … to all of you, and in particular, to my beloved diocese of Chiclayo in Peru, where a faithful people have accompanied their bishop, shared their faith,” he said in Spanish.

Christians in Gaza have responded to the election of Pope Leo XIV, saying they hope he will show the same solidarity with the people of the enclave as his predecessor.

“We are happy about the election of the pope … We hope that his heart will remain with Gaza like Pope Francis,” George Antone, 44, the head of the emergency committee at the Holy Family Church in Gaza, the only Catholic church in Gaza, told Reuters.

“We appeal to the new pope to look at Gaza through the eyes of Pope Francis and to feel it with the heart of Pope Francis. At the same time, we are confident that the new pope will give importance to Gaza and its peace,” Antone added.

Gaza’s 2.3 million population comprises about 1,000 Christians, the majority of them Greek Orthodox.

French President Emmanuel Macron has greeted the election of Pope Leo XIV, hoping for a pontificate of “peace and hope”.

“A historic moment for the Catholic Church and its millions of faithful,” he posted on social media. “To Pope Leo XIV, and to all Catholics in France and around the world, I extend a message of fraternity. On this May 8th, may this new pontificate be one of peace and hope.”

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the spiritual leader of the Eastern Orthodox Church, has said he hopes Leo will continue the cooperation across churches pursued by Francis.

“I greet the new Pope, the new Bishop of Rome, with great brotherly love in Christ and great expectations,” he told The Associated Press news agency from an even in Athens, Greece.

Bartholomew said he and Francis collaborated on global challenges, including climate change, migration and the impact of technological change. They also hoped to end a centuries-old dispute by finding a common date to celebrate Easter.

“I hope that His Holiness Pope Leo XIV will be a dear brother and collaborator … for unity of the whole Christian family and for the benefit of the whole of humankind,” he said.

Take a look at the historic moment and the jubilant reaction from the crowd at the Vatican:

Antonio Guterres has called the election of the new pope “a moment of profound spiritual significance for millions of faithful around the world, and it comes at a time of great global challenges”.

He said he looks forward “to building on the long legacy of cooperation between the United Nations and the Holy See – nurtured most recently by Pope Francis – to advance solidarity, foster reconciliation, and build a just and sustainable world for all”.

“Our world is in need of the strongest voices for peace, social justice, human dignity and compassion,” Guterres said.

“Despite the rich diversity of backgrounds and beliefs, people everywhere share a common goal: ‘May peace be with all the world,’” he added, quoting Pope Leo’s words from earlier today.

The Catholic Church has been losing members in the US since the 1950s, so it seems unlikely that there will be any long-term change with Pope Leo.

Just about 20 percent of the American population regard themselves as Catholic. That’s significantly down from the ’50s, the ’60s and even the turn of the century.

Nevertheless, people will be interested to see what the new pope can bring, particularly when it comes to key issues for the Catholic Church, such as their approach to gay marriage. This new pope tends to be on the conservative side of that. He also tends to be on the conservative side of abortion and trans issues.

However, he is very much on the left politically when it comes to things like immigration and also the use of women in the church.

The announcement that US Cardinal Robert Prevost has been named Pope Leo XIV has caused excitement tinged with hope around the world, with leaders from numerous countries offering their congratulations.

Here are just some of them:

• Argentina’s President Javier Milei said, “The forces of Heaven have clearly given their verdict. No more words, Mr. Judge. End.”
• France’s President Emmanuel Macron said, “A historic moment for the Catholic Church and its millions of faithful. To Pope Leo XIV and to all Catholics in France and around the world, I extend a message of fraternity.
• Italy’s PM Giorgia Meloni said, “I extend my most sincere wishes to Pope Leo XIV for the beginning of his pontificate. In a time marked by conflict and unrest, his words from the Loggia delle Benedizioni are a powerful call for peace, brotherhood and responsibility”.
• Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun said, “We pray to God to grant him health, well-being, and wisdom to lead the Church during this important phase of its history.”
• South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa said, “Pope Leo XIV’s early emphasis on peace is a call that resonates with most of humanity and is one that honours the legacy of the late Pope Francis”.

You can read more here.

Colombia’s president has hailed the selection of a US pope with deep ties to Latin America, expressing hope that the new pontiff backs Latino migrants in his native United States.

“I hope he becomes a great leader for migrant peoples around the world, and I hope he encourages our Latin American migrant brothers and sisters, humiliated today in the United States. It’s time for them to organize,” President Gustavo Petro said on social media.

Former United States President Barack Obama has congratulated Pope Leo XIV, his “fellow Chicagoan”, in a post on X.

US President Donald Trump has hailed the election of new Pope Leo XIV, the first pontiff from the United States, as a “great honor” for the country.

“Congratulations to Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, who was just named Pope. It is such an honor to realize that he is the first American Pope. What excitement, and what a Great Honor for our Country,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.

“I look forward to meeting Pope Leo XIV. It will be a very meaningful moment!”

Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani has become the latest world leader to respond to the new pope.

In a statement, the Qatari Diwan said the leader had sent a “cable of congratulations” to Pope Leo.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Robert Orsi, a professor of religious studies at Northwestern University, has further unpacked the pope’s name choice, Leo.

As we’ve been reporting, Leo XIII transformed how the Catholic church approached workers. But Orsi explained he also “strongly put down a movement called Americanism”.

“This movement was a kind of a nationalist impulse within Catholicism, with national churches claiming to have their own identities, their own particular ways of doing things,” he said. “And I think by choosing the name Leo XIV, this pope was, without a doubt, signaling a return to a global Catholicism.”

He predicted the Vatican under the new Pope Leo would be “subtle and wise” with how he deals with the Trump administration.

“But I think they will also be strong on the issues that were mentioned, climate change, migration, immigration, workers, justice and so forth,” he said.