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Vatican City – It felt like the square could talk in one voice: “Leone! Leone! Leone!”

Thousands of people in St Peter’s Square chanted in chorus the name adopted by Robert Prevost as he ascended to the papacy on Thursday: Leo XIV.

Just an hour and a half earlier, white smoke had billowed from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel, announcing that a conclave of cardinals had elected a new leader for the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.

Now, it was time to meet Pope Leo himself. A solemn silence fell across the square. The faithful waited to hear the pope’s first message, which would set the tone for his papacy.

“Peace be upon you,” said Leo XIV, appearing on the central balcony of St Peter’s Basilica.

He proceeded to repeat a blessing uttered by his late predecessor, Pope Francis, just weeks earlier: “God loves us, God loves everyone, and evil will not prevail. We are in the hands of God.”

It was a closely watched moment, with red-hatted cardinals poking out of nearby windows to catch their first glimpse at the newly minted pontiff.

Pope Leo XIV was elected on the second day of the conclave, and his opening remarks as leader signalled continuity with Francis, who died on April 21 at age 88. But experts say he is likely to strike a middle path, between furthering Francis’s inclusive agenda and embracing Vatican tradition.

“Peace” was one of the most used words in his brief speech — a choice meant to echo the words that Jesus pronounced after Easter, as Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni explained during a news briefing.

Leo XIV called on Catholics to seek “a disarmed peace and a disarming peace” through “dialogue” and “building bridges”, in a brief speech heavy with themes of unity.

“Bravo! That is what we need!” one audience member in the square shouted as the new pope spoke.

Another, 29-year-old Kasper Mihalak from Denmark, was squeezed in the middle of the crowd hoping to catch a glimpse of the first North American pope.

“I am really excited. Cardinal Prevost, now Leo XIV — it’s gonna be amazing! He said a lot about peace during his speech. I think the world now really needs it,” Mihalak said.

Rosaria Venuto could hardly hold back her tears. Early in the morning, she picked up her two children and drove four hours from Ascoli Satriano, a small town in the southern Italian province of Apulia, to be in St Peter’s Square.

“I am deeply moved to have the chance to be here and live through this joy and be a small part of this historical event,” she said.

His own man

Born in Chicago, a midwestern city in the United States, Leo XIV spent more than two decades in Peru, where he acquired dual citizenship.

There, he worked in some of Peru’s poorest areas, and he eventually became the bishop of Chiclayo, in the country’s agricultural north. Then, in 2023, Pope Francis appointed him to lead a powerful office that manages bishops across the world.

Phil Pullella, a Vatican expert who has covered the papacy for more than four decades, said that background offers a degree of continuity with Francis, who hailed from Argentina and advocated against poverty.

“He knows about poverty in Latin America,” Pullella said of Leo XIV. “So, he’s not the same thing as if they had elected some cardinal of New York, for example.”

That continuity was likely appreciated by conservative camps at the Vatican, as well as liberal-leaning ones, Pullella added.

“He comes from the wealthy world, but he witnessed firsthand the problems of the Global South in a poor country,” he said.

Still, Pullella noted that the way Leo XIV dressed showed that “he is going to be his own man”.

Instead of the simple white cassock that Pope Francis wore in 2013 when he was elected, Leo XIII added a traditional red cape over his vest, symbolising the spiritual and temporal powers of his office.

“In a sense, he is going back a little bit to that kind of tradition,” Pullella said. “He would not have been elected had he not had the votes of the conservative bloc.”

A unifying figure

Leo XIV’s election came as a surprise to many. Many observers were betting on a new pope by nightfall, but few expected only three rounds of voting.

The crowd was stunned when white smoke started to pour out of the tiny chimney by early evening, at around 6:09pm local time (16:00 GMT).

That was the signal that — of the 133 cardinals under the age of 80 who were eligible to vote — a candidate had received the two-thirds majority needed to become pope.

This year’s conclave had the distinction of being the most international in the Vatican’s history: The participating cardinals hailed from more than 70 countries, representing divergent views for the Catholic Church’s future.

The diversity was part of the legacy of Pope Francis, who appointed cardinals from underrepresented countries like Laos and Haiti to broaden the church’s global appeal.

Francis spent 12 years as head of the Catholic Church, shaking up the establishment by adopting a distinct style and tone, focused on austerity and advocacy for marginalised populations.

The late pope’s efforts caused excitement among reformers but also dismay among conservatives, who accused him of diluting the Church’s teachings. Experts say that led to a deep polarisation within the church, with some members criticising Francis for decentralising the church’s authority.

Those experts point out that Leo XIV’s experience in the Roman Curia — the church’s government — was likely a selling point among conservative conclave voters looking for stability in the years ahead.

What’s in a name?

While Pope Leo XIV’s first moves are yet to be revealed, his choice of name is noteworthy.

Bruni, the Vatican spokesperson, noted that “Leo” is a direct reference to Pope Leo XIII, who adopted a new social doctrine in the late 19th century.

In 1891, Pope Leo XIII wrote an encyclical — or papal letter — known as the Rerum Novarum. It called on Catholics to address the “wretchedness” facing the working class, amid the upheavals of industrialisation and political changes like the unification of Italy.

That encyclical marked a radical new approach to workers, and it triggered the creation of Catholic newspapers, social cooperatives and banks — a social movement that is still alive today.

Bruni said the current Pope Leo hoped to draw a parallel to that time, with its technological revolutions.

“It is not a casual reference to the men and women of their work at a time of artificial intelligence,” Bruni explained.

Robert Orsi, a professor of religious studies at Northwestern University, said the name choice could also signify other historical parallels.

Leo XIII “strongly put down a movement called Americanism,” said Orsi.

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

Pullella also believes it is noteworthy that, while Leo XIV mentioned his parishioners in Peru, he avoided highlighting his ties with the US.

“I think it’s very significant that he did not give a shout-out to the United States. He didn’t say, ‘I’m from America.’ He didn’t speak in English,” Pullella said.

That sent a message that “basically he’s not owned by the United States”, Pullella added. Leo XIV has previously been critical of the administration of US President Donald Trump over issues like nationalism and migration, just as the late Pope Francis was.

The white smoke has billowed, and the Catholic church has a new pope – and he’s American.

Cardinals at the Vatican elected the Chicago-born Robert Prevost on Thursday to lead the church, succeeding Pope Francis, who died last month.

Prevost took the name Leo XIV as he became the first pontiff from the United States.

“Peace be with you,” were his first words as pope.

Here is a look at the new pope and his journey from the US Midwest to the top of the church of 1.4 billion people.

What is Pope Leo’s background?

Born in Chicago in 1955 to parents of French, Italian and Spanish descent, Leo’s father was a school principal and his mother had degrees in library science and education and was deeply involved in the St Mary of the Assumption that the family attended.

Last week, the Chicago Sun-Times cited Leo’s friends and fellow church goers as saying that he was dedicated to his faith and path to priesthood from a young age.

Leo graduated with a degree in mathematics from the University of Villanova in Pennsylvania in 1977. He also studied religion at the Catholic Theological Union of Chicago.

In 1982, he received a doctorate in church law from the Pontifical University of St Thomas Aquinas in Rome before being sent to serve in a Catholic mission in Peru.

In the subsequent decades, he rose through the ranks of the church as he bounced between Chicago and Peru.

Pope Francis made him the Bishop of Chiclayo, Peru, in 2015 before giving him greater responsibilities within the church. That same year, Prevost also became a Peruvian citizen.

In 2023, he became prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, a key Catholic administrative body, based in Rome.

What is an Augustinian?

In his first public remarks as pope, Leo introduced himself as an Augustinian – an order within the Catholic Church that follows the teachings of St Augustine of Hippo, which emphasise love, harmony, humility and dedication to the spiritual community of the church.

The term also describes individuals who belong to religious orders, and Pope Leo is just one of 34 popes out of 266 to have done so.

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.

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.

What did the pope say in his first speech?

Leo suggested that he would follow in Francis’s footsteps. The late pope was largely seen as a transformational figure who took the church in a progressive direction and focused on promoting the rights of the poor and marginalised.

“Let us keep in our ears the weak but always brave voice of Pope Francis, who blessed Rome – the pope who blessed Rome and the world that day on the morning of Easter,” Leo said.

In his final Easter message, days before he died, Francis called for peace and disarmament.

Why Leo?

When it comes to popes, names matter. New pontiffs often choose new names as tribute to a saint or predecessor.

For example, Pope Francis took the name of St Francis of Assisi, who renounced material goods and dedicated his life to the poor.

The last Leo to lead the church, Pope Leo XIII, championed the rights of workers.

“Up until that time, the church’s hierarchy tended to be identified with the upper class, and so Leo XIII put a redirection on the church, and certainly many of the popes since that time have built on that,” Father James Bretzke, professor of theology at John Carroll University, told Al Jazeera.

What are his politics?

Church leaders are not politicians, but religion is intertwined with public affairs. Leo has given hints of his politics over the years, particularly in advocating for the rights of migrants.

In 2015, Leo shared an article by Cardinal Timothy Dolan, criticising then-candidate Donald Trump’s anti-immigration proposals. The column was titled: Why Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric is so problematic.

In February, he again appeared to criticise the Trump administration’s immigration policies, taking aim at Vice President JD Vance’s argument that people should love others close to them more than strangers.

Leo shared an article proclaiming: “JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others.”

Where does he stand on female priests?

The debate over allowing women to be priests has been raging within the Catholic Church, but Leo does not seem to be in favour of the change.

“Something that needs to be said also is that ordaining women – and there’s been some women that have said this, interestingly enough – ‘clericalising women’ doesn’t necessarily solve a problem, it might make a new problem,” he told reporters in 2023.

What has he said about sex abuse scandals?

Leo’s Augustinian Order has faced criticism over transparency in dealing with sex abuse cases that have rocked the church.

In 2023, Leo called for focusing on the victims when it comes to this issue.

“There are places where good work has already been done for years, and the rules are being put into practice. At the same time, I believe that there is still much to learn,” he told Vatican News in 2023.

“I am talking about the urgency and responsibility of accompanying victims.”

How does he compare to other popes, age-wise?

At 69, Leo is younger than his past two predecessors when they became pontiffs. Francis was 76. Benedict XVI was 78. But he is older than John Paul II, who was 58 when he became pope – one of the youngest pontiffs in modern history.

What does he do in his spare time?

He likes tennis, spending time with friends and “meeting a broad range of different people”.

“I consider myself quite the amateur tennis player. Since leaving Peru, I have had few occasions to practise, so I am looking forward to getting back on the court,” he told the Augustinian Order website in 2023.