Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, born in Chicago, has been elected Pope Leo XIV, making history as the first American to lead the Catholic Church. The appointment came in 2023 following Pope Francis’s decision.

The BriefA new pope has been named following the death of former Pope Francis.Cardinal Robert Prevost, now Pope Leo the Fourteenth, will deliver a short speech and a prayer before being inaugurated at St.

Leo XIV’s predecessor Pope Francis, birth name Jorge Maria Bergoglio, appointed 80% of the cardinals who voted to elect one of them as the next pope. Most of Bergoglio’s appointees are younger and more racially and geographically diverse than the men they replaced, and many appear to be far more progressive than he was.