“The idea of an American pope was unimaginable for generations,” Jason Horowitz, our Rome bureau chief, noted yesterday. Why would church leaders pick a pope from a global superpower that shapes world affairs?
Yet the cardinals in the Sistine Chapel chose Robert Francis Prevost, a 69-year-old Chicago native, as the 267th pope of the Roman Catholic Church. He has adopted the papal name Leo XIV. He’s the first American to hold the job.
Prevost has lived outside the U.S. for much of his life, and many in the Vatican view him as a churchman who transcends borders, Jason wrote. Today’s newsletter will guide you through The Times’s coverage of the new pope and his views.
Prevost grew up in a suburb just south of Chicago. His father was a school principal. His mother, a librarian, was deeply involved in their local Catholic parish, St. Mary of the Assumption, on the city’s Far South Side. His maternal grandparents were Creole people of color who moved north from New Orleans.
Julie Bosman, our Chicago bureau chief, interviewed Father William Lego, who has known Prevost since high school. “They picked a good man,” he said. “He had a good sense of right and wrong, always working with the poor.”
Prevost earned a degree in math from Villanova University and then a divinity degree at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. Not long after, he moved abroad.
He lived for two decades in Peru as a missionary, priest, teacher and eventually a bishop — a role for which he became a naturalized citizen of Peru. Prevost led a diocese in Chiclayo, in a region of the country where flooding is common. He would often deliver food and other supplies to remote areas himself, sometimes carrying bags of rice on his back, one priest told my colleague Genevieve Glatsky.
Father Pedro Vásquez, another priest in Chiclayo, told The Times that he was so excited about the news that “my heart is going to fail me!”
Under Pope Francis, Prevost held one of the most influential Vatican posts, running the office that selects and manages bishops globally. His knowledge of the Vatican’s inner workings made him an attractive choice to the Roman Curia, the powerful bureaucracy that governs the church, our reporters in Vatican City wrote.
But at least one element of Prevost’s American childhood has stuck with him: Those close to him say he’s a baseball fan, and he has been known to explain the rules of the game to his Italian friends. (Prevost’s brother said the new pope roots for the White Sox — and also told WGN, a TV station in Chicago, that he enjoys Wordle.)
The pope’s politics
Francis appointed Prevost as a cardinal in 2023, and the two share some views of the church. Prevost told the Vatican’s official news website last year that bishops were called to “suffer with” the people they served, echoing Francis’ focus on the poor.
But the two may diverge on other points. In 2012, Prevost expressed concerns about what he called the “homosexual lifestyle.” A year later, the newly elected Francis made headlines when he said of gay people, “Who am I to judge?”
More recently, a social media account under Prevost’s name has taken aim at President Trump, according to my colleague Lisa Lerer, who covers politics. In 2018, the account shared a post from Cardinal Blase Cupich that said there was “nothing remotely Christian, American or morally defensible” about the administration’s policy of separating migrant children from their parents.
And in April, after Vice President JD Vance used a Catholic teaching to defend the Trump administration’s deportation policies, the account posted an article titled “JD Vance is wrong.”
Vance did not seem to hold a grudge. “Congratulations to Leo XIV, the first American Pope, on his election!” he wrote on social media yesterday. “I’m sure millions of American Catholics and other Christians will pray for his successful work leading the Church.”
A celebration in the square
The tens of thousands of faithful who were crammed into St. Peter’s Square exchanged befuddled looks when Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost was announced as pope from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica. Who? People started searching his name on their phones.
“I think they just elected an American pope,” said Nicole Serena, 21, a student who is in Rome studying marketing.
Wait — an American?
Some faces fell.
“Maybe he’s a good guy?” said Catalina Zaza, 27, an Argentine art student in Rome. “We don’t know.”
A little over an hour earlier, when white smoke billowed from the chimney, some people hugged. Others raised their hands to rejoice in prayer. When the new pontiff was announced as Pope Leo XIV, the crowd began to chant, “Papa Leone!”
Then Leo stepped out. Onlookers shrieked with delight. “Peace be with you,” he said in Italian.
Only once Leo paid homage to Francis did many of those gathered appear to relax. Zaza and her friend Sofía Basanes, 30, also from Argentina, started to nod at the new pope’s calls for peace, justice, dialogue and love. Next to them, a young priest sobbed and an older nun’s eyes glistened with tears.
And when Leo began to speak in Spanish, the crowd broke into enthusiastic applause. “He lived in Peru!” one man yelled in Spanish. “Peruuuu!” Leo did not speak in English or mention the United States.
By the end, Basanes was crying, along with quite a few others around her. “We have so much faith in Pope Francis’ legacy,” she said.
More reactions
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Across the U.S., news of Leo’s election was greeted with surprise — and delight. “I never thought it would happen,” said Tom Keane in Boston. “Not in my lifetime.”
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On social media, Trump called Leo’s ascent a “Great Honor for our Country.”
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Two priests reflected on what it feels like to see an old friend, known to them as Bob, become pope. “The papacy is certainly not something that I could ever see Bob Prevost aspire to,” one said. “I think he was just doing what he felt God was calling him to do.”
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See photos from the moment Pope Leo emerged onto the balcony overlooking St. Peter’s Square.
More on Leo
THE LATEST NEWS
India-Pakistan Conflict
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India and Pakistan are engaged in their most expansive military conflict in decades, with widespread accounts of attacks in each country well beyond their disputed Kashmir border.
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Fighting has escalated rapidly since Wednesday, when India launched airstrikes. It blames Pakistan for a terrorist attack in Kashmir; Pakistan denies involvement.
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Both countries have warned millions of schoolchildren to stay home. Airlines are avoiding flying over Pakistan and some of northern India.
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Fear is rising. “I have been stocking up on rations like rice and lentils and flour. I have withdrawn cash from banks,” a physiotherapist in Jaipur, India, said.
Trump’s Nominations
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Trump revoked the nomination of Ed Martin to run the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, after a Republican senator said he would not vote for Martin because of his support for Jan. 6 rioters.
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In Martin’s place, Trump named the Fox News host Jeanine Pirro, a former district attorney, to be the interim U.S. attorney for Washington.
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The Trump administration removed the acting head of FEMA one day after the official told lawmakers that the agency’s work was vital.
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The administration fired the head of the Library of Congress, Carla Hayden, the first Black woman to hold the job. She received a two-sentence dismissal email that did not give an explanation.
More on the Trump Administration
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Trump said the U.S. would pare back tariffs on British steel and cars. Britain agreed to increase market access for American exports including beef and ethanol.
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Trump asked Speaker Mike Johnson to include a tax rise on the wealthiest Americans in the fiscal package that House Republicans are putting together.
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The president ordered federal agencies to abandon a legal tool used to assess whether policies discriminate against minorities.
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The U.S. could bring the first group of white South Africans it has classified as refugees to America next week. Trump claims they’re racially persecuted in their home country.
Other Big Stories
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Bill Gates says his philanthropic foundation will close in 20 years. By then, he says, it will have given away more than $200 billion.
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Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping met for talks in Moscow. In a joint statement, they rejected what they described as Washington’s attempt to contain them.
OPINIONS
Leo is reputed to have a quieter, more disciplined personality than Francis. But he’s still likely to anger conservatives, David Gibson writes.
Here’s a column by Michelle Goldberg on Hakeem Jeffries and the Democrats.
MORNING READS
Marcella Hazan: Twelve years after her death, the revered writer is still teaching us how to cook Italian, Pete Wells writes.
Ask the Therapist: “I’m dating my friend’s ex. Is that wrong?”
Your pick: For the third day in a row, Morning readers were most interested in Kamala Harris’s Met Gala appearance.
Trending online yesterday: People were — understandably — interested in the new pope. Now that the conclave is over, read about what happens next.
Lives Lived: The political scientist Joseph Nye wrote seminal books on foreign affairs, held top jobs at Harvard and in government and coined the term “soft power.” He died at 88.
SPORTS
N.B.A.: The Timberwolves defeated the Warriors, 117-93, to tie their series 1-1. The Warriors were without Steph Curry, who was ruled out of the game with a hamstring strain.
Last week, we featured a story about Italian-themed A.I. images, an absurd and hard-to-explain trend on TikTok. It got us thinking about how confusing the internet can be. We asked readers what they wanted to know about weird things online. For each of the next few weeks, The Times’s internet culture reporter, Madison Malone Kircher, will answer one question.
Tracey Harber from Lancaster, Pa., asked: How do you know when a picture is A.I.-generated or photoshopped, like the one Trump claimed showed Kilmar Abrego Garcia as a gang member?
It’s getting harder to spot manipulated images as artificial intelligence improves. Your first and best defense is skepticism. Does an image seem designed to provoke a reaction? Too cute to be true? Completely defiant of the laws of science?
In the case of the image shared by Trump, “MS13” had been superimposed over Abrego Garcia’s knuckles. (You can read more about that here.)
From a technical standpoint, one thing to look at is shadow. Does a shadow fall where it should based on the light in the image? Has it been removed altogether? Also watch for repeating patterns, which can indicate that an image has been altered. Do all the clouds in the sky look exactly the same? Look for anything else that doesn’t seem quite right.
Think of two eyes of wildly different sizes or a hand with six fingers. Images made by A.I. can also have a weird, hyperperfect smoothness to them. Some come with a watermark showing which platform made them. Any A.I. image published by The Times will come with a big label.
ARTS AND IDEAS
Parents play a long game: They invest time and love, and then they wait up to 30 years for the results. Assessing progress can be difficult, but those once-a-year cards that children deliver on Mother’s and Father’s Day can serve as a kind of performance review. Nick Singleton from Atlanta got rave reviews in a card from his middle child. “You think it’s going to be because of the unconditional love I give them,” he said. Instead, “she drew a picture of me handing her tablet back to her on the couch.” Read more stories.
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The Black Lives Matter movement in 2020 caused prices for Black artists’ portraits of Black people to soar. Now, in a slower art market and a changed political climate, no one’s buying, Vulture reports.
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“The holiest man in the world probably knows all the words to the Chili’s Baby Back Ribs song,” Desi Lydic joked on “The Daily Show.”
