The 133 cardinals who assembled in the Vatican for the top-secret conclave have chosen a new leader of the Roman Catholic Church: Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost.
Prevost, who is the first U.S.-born pope, replaces the late Pope Francis, who died at age 88 last month.
Plumes of white smoke streaming from a Sistine Chapel chimney Thursday signaled that a new leader of the Roman Catholic Church ― a faith with more than 1 billion followers ― had been selected by a two-thirds majority vote of the cardinals, the church’s most senior clergy under the pope.
Thousands filled the streets of Vatican City and cheered as Prevost’s name was announced from the balcony overlooking St. Peter’s Square.
The 267th pontiff was selected after several rounds of voting over two days. In 2013, it took five rounds of voting in under two days for the cardinals to choose Francis. The fastest conclave lasted only 10 hours in 1503, while the longest lasted nearly three years in 1268.
The conclave initiated Wednesday morning local time, beginning with mass, prayers and oath-taking before the first vote that evening. Italian media reported that the Vatican deactivated all cell phone signals and activated signal jammers in the area to prevent any surveillance of the proceedings.
Any of the cardinals could have been named the next pope ― and technically, church rules state that any Catholic male is eligible for the role ― but only a handful of cardinals are viewed as the top contenders. And though there are 252 members of the College of Cardinals, only those under 80 are eligible electors. Among the 133 who voted, the Argentine-born Francis had appointed 108 of them ― lending him sizable posthumous influence on who’s been chosen as his successor.
This conclave has been the most geographically diverse one in history, with cardinals hailing from 71 countries, including 17 from Africa, 23 from Asia, 37 from the Americas and 4 from Oceania. The remaining 52 are from Europe, the birthplace of every pope except Francis for the past 1,300 years.