PNN – Finally, after two days of deliberation and voting by cardinals in the Vatican, Cardinal Robert Francis Provost of the United States was elected as the 267th Pope and the new leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.
According to the report of Pakistan News Network, After two days of deliberation and voting to elect a successor to Pope Francis, who died on April 21 after a difficult period of illness, the cardinals in the Vatican finally elected the new leader of the world’s Catholics on the evening of Thursday, May 8, and white smoke rose into the air, indicating the consensus of the 133 cardinals who were members of the papal election committee in a secret meeting in the Sistine Chapel.
The new pope, Cardinal Robert Francis Provost, known as Pope Leo XIV, was welcomed on the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica. The 69-year-old, from Chicago, Illinois, is a close associate of the late Pope Francis and the first American leader of the world’s Catholics.
The American network CNN said about the new pope: An experienced global leader who spent much of his career as a missionary in South America and most recently headed the powerful Vatican office for the appointment of bishops; he is expected to continue Pope Francis’ reforms.
He worked in Trujillo, Peru, for a decade and was then appointed as Bishop of Chiclayo, another city in Peru, where he served from 2014 to 2023.
He is said to have a humble and taciturn personality, and is known within the Vatican as a moderate and capable of reconciling different points of view.
In an interview with Vatican News, shortly after becoming head of the Dicastery for Bishops, Prevost said: I still consider myself a missionary. My mission, like every Christian’s, is to be a missionary and preach the gospel wherever I am.
The cardinals of the Catholic Church began the sensitive and historic process of electing a new pope in the Vatican yesterday; an election that was described as one of the most complex and unpredictable elections for the world’s Catholic leader due to deep disagreements among the 133 voting cardinals.
Of the more than 250 cardinals, only 133 under the age of 80 are eligible to vote. They represent regions from Europe, Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Oceania. Voting continued until one candidate received two-thirds plus one (i.e., at least 89 votes).
The voting process is conducted in the utmost secrecy, and after each round of voting, the ballots are burned in a special oven. Black smoke means no agreement, and white smoke indicates the election of a new pope, a sign that thousands of Christians will be waiting to see in St. Peter’s Square.
Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, Louis Tagle from the Philippines, nicknamed “Asian Francis”, Robert Sara from Guinea, and Peter Ordo from Hungary were among the prominent figures to succeed Pope Francis.
Pope Francis (Jorge Mario Bergoglio) was born on December 17, 1936, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. A resident and citizen of the Vatican, he died at 7:35 a.m. local time on April 21, 2025, in his apartment in Sint Marta, of a stroke, coma, and irreversible cardiac arrest. He had previously suffered from acute respiratory failure with microbial pneumonia and high blood pressure.
The world’s Catholic leader suffers from type 2 diabetes. The Vatican had previously reported on February 22 that the pope’s condition was serious, citing a prolonged respiratory crisis that required the use of oxygen.
Pope Francis, the Archbishop of Rome and head of the Catholic Church, assumed the position in 2013 after the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI.