Robert Prevost, first American pope in history of the Catholic Church, will take the name Leo XIV

VATICAN CITY AP Pope Leo XIV the American Robert Prevost commented Peace be with you in his first words as pope offering a message of peace and dialogue without fear From the loggia of St Peter s Basilica history s first American pope recalled he was an Augustinian priest but that he was above all a Christian above all and a bishop So we can all walk together He spoke in Italian and then switched to Spanish recalling his various years spent as a missionary and then archbishop of Chiclayo Peru THIS IS A URGENT NEWS UPDATE AP s earlier story follows below VATICAN CITY AP Robert Prevost a missionary who spent his career ministering in Peru and leads the Vatican s powerful office of bishops was elected the first American pope in the -year history of the Catholic Church Prevost a -year-old member of the Augustinian religious order took the name Leo XIV He appeared on the loggia of St Peter s Basilica wearing the traditional red cape of the papacy a cape that Pope Francis had eschewed on his balloting in Prevost had been a leading candidate except for his nationality There had long been a taboo against a U S pope given the geopolitical power already wielded by the United States in the secular sphere But Prevost a Chicago native was seemingly eligible also because he s a Peruvian citizen and lived for years in Peru first as a missionary and then as an archbishop Francis clearly had his eye on Prevost and in multiple solutions saw him as his heir apparent He brought Prevost to the Vatican in to serve as the powerful head of the office that vets bishop nominations from around the world one of the majority major jobs in the Catholic Church As a consequence Prevost had a prominence going into the conclave that scarce other cardinals have The crowd in St Peter s Square erupted in cheers priests made the sign of the cross and nuns wept as the crowd shouted Viva il papa after the white smoke wafted into the late afternoon sky at p m Waving flags from around the world tens of thousands of people waited to learn who had won Eyes on the chimney Earlier Thursday large school groups joined the mix of humanity awaiting the outcome in St Peter s Square They blended in with people participating in preplanned Holy Year pilgrimages and journalists from around the world who have descended on Rome to document the electoral process The wait is marvelous disclosed Priscilla Parlante a Roman Pedro Deget a finance aspirant from Argentina explained he and his family visited Rome during the Argentine pope s pontificate and were hoping for a new pope in Francis image Francis did well in opening the church to the outside world but on other fronts maybe he didn t do enough We ll see if the next one will be able to do more Deget reported from the piazza The Rev Jan Dominik Bogataj a Slovene Franciscan friar was more critical of Francis He explained if he were in the Sistine Chapel he d be voting for Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem who is on multiple papal contender lists He has clear ideas not much ideology He s a direct intelligent and respectful man Bogataj explained from the square Most of of all he s agile Particular of the cardinals had commented they expected a short conclave For much of the past century the conclave has needed between three and ballots to find a pope John Paul I the pope who reigned for days in was elected on the fourth ballot His successor John Paul II needed eight Francis was elected on the fifth in Conjecture on contenders The cardinals opened the secretive centuries-old ritual Wednesday afternoon participating in a rite more theatrical than even Hollywood could create Bright red cassocks Swiss Guards standing at attention ancient Latin chants and oaths preceded the slamming shut of the Sistine Chapel doors to seal the cardinals off from the outside world Cardinal Pietro Parolin the -year-old secretary of state under Francis and a leading contender to succeed him as pope assumed leadership of the proceedings as the most of senior cardinal under age eligible to participate Parolin seemed to have received the blessings from none other than Re the respected elder among the cardinals During the traditional exchange of peace during the pre-conclave Mass on Wednesday Re was caught on a hot mic telling Parolin auguri doppio or double best wishes Italians debated whether it was just a customary gesture acknowledging Parolin s role running conclave or if it might have been an informal endorsement or even a premature congratulations The voting process The voting followed a strict choreography dictated by church law Each cardinal writes his choice on a piece of paper inscribed with the words Eligo in summen pontificem I elect as supreme pontiff They approach the altar one by one and say I call as my witness Christ the Lord who will be my judge that my vote is given to the one who before God I think should be elected The folded ballot is placed on a round plate and tipped into a silver and gold urn Once cast the ballots are opened one by one by three different scrutineers cardinals selected at random who write down the names and read them aloud The scrutineers whose work is checked by other cardinals called revisers then add up the results of each round of balloting and write them on a separate sheet of paper which is preserved in the papal archives As the scrutineer reads out each name he pierces each ballot with a needle through the word Eligo All the ballots are then bound together with thread and the bundle is put aside and burned in the chapel stove along with a chemical to produce the smoke