Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost emerged as the 267th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church on Thursday. He took the name Pope Leo XIV.
DECENCY GLOBAL NEWS reports the new Pope was announced in Rome to the waiting crowds at Saint Peter’s Basilica by Cardinal Protodeacon Dominique Mamberti.
Cardinal Prevost, the first American to become Pope in the 2000 history of the Church, emerged not without one or two controversies.
One of the controversies is an AI-generated photo of President Donald Trump, which surfaced on the Truth Social account of the U.S. president, showing him dressed as a pope.
After Cardinal Prevost emerged Pope, many started putting the pieces together and connecting the dots, raising concerns on the church and state controversy once again.
The church and state controversy refers to the debate about the relationship between religious institutions and the government, particularly the extent to which they should be separate or intertwined.
Meanwhile, immediately Pope Leo XIV emerged, President Trump has this to say on Truth Social: “Congratulations to Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, who was just named Pope.
“It is such an honour to realise that he is the first American Pope. What excitement, and what a Great honour for our Country. I look forward to meeting Pope Leo XIV. It will be a very meaningful moment!”
According to a Daily Mail report, Prevost’s election as Pope shocked the world, as there has long been a taboo against an American pope, given the geopolitical power already wielded by the United States in the secular sphere.
The question many are asking: “Did the U.S. influence the emergence of Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost as Pope or the AI photo of President Trump dressed as a pope is sheer coincidence?”
But Prevost is also a Peruvian citizen and lived for years in Peru, first as a missionary and then as an archbishop. He was a popular choice with the Latin American and North American cardinals.
Another controversy heralding the emergence of Cardinal Prevost as Pope Leo XIV is the age-long tradition of using white smoke to signal the successful election of a new Pope.
Nigerian actor and lawyer, Anayo Modestus Onyekwere, popularly known as Kanayo O. Kanayo, is one of those who have questioned this age-long tradition.
In electing a Pope, all the ballots used are burned in a cast-iron stove first used in the 1939 conclave. Chemicals are added to colour the smoke: black if no Pope has been elected, white if one has been elected.
DECENCY GLOBAL NEWS reports Pope Leo XIV emerged at the third ballot, meaning black smoke billowed twice from the chimney above the Sistine Chapel in the process of electing the new Pope.
At the third ballot, white smoke billowed from the chimney above the Sistine Chapel in Rome to announce that the 133 Cardinal electors have elected the new Pope.
About 45,000 people had gathered in St Peter’s Square to await the announcement.
Reacting, the Nigerian actor argued that the Catholic Church should stop the practice of using black smoke to signify failure in the election process.
“This has been engrained in the mind of the world that black is failure. I think this is bad,” Kanayo said.
Speaking further, he said: “So, yesterday, what happened was that the news broke that Cardinals fail to elect a new Pope.
“What that meant was that black smoke came from the chimney. So, when they fail, it is black smoke. When they succeed, it is white smoke.
“This has been engrained in the mind of the world that black is failure. I think this is bad.
“The Catholic Church must rise up to this, immediately. We have been denigrated, we have been vilified, doing anything as black people. So, this means Africa is the black sheep of the world.
“Catholic community, let blue smoke mean that a new Pope has not been elected and let white means he has been elected. Remove the black”.
Cardinal Prevost’s first word after becoming Pope Leo XIV
Shortly after Cardinal Prevost was elected as Pope Leo XIV, his first appearance was at the central window of St. Peter’s Basilica and his first words were: “Peace be with all of you”, referencing the first greeting of Jesus Christ, when he rose from the dead.
“God loves us, all of us, evil will not prevail. We are all in the hands of God. Without fear, united, hand in hand with God and among ourselves, we will go forward,” Pope Leo XIV said.
What to know about the new Pope
Meanwhile, prior to his election as Pope Leo XIV, Cardinal Prevost was Prefect of the Dicastery for the Bishops.
DECENCY GLOBAL NEWS reports the new Roman Pontiff was created Cardinal in 2024 by the late Pope Francis.
Pope Leo XIV, just like the late Pope Francis, is from the Americas. However, unlike Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the 69-year-old new Pope is from the northern part of the continent.
He was born on September 14, 1955, in Chicago, Illinois, to Louis Marius Prevost, of French and Italian descent, and Mildred Martínez, of Spanish descent. He has two brothers, Louis Martín and John Joseph.
He spent his childhood and adolescence with his family and studied first at the Minor Seminary of the Augustinian Fathers and then at Villanova University in Pennsylvania, where in 1977 he earned a Degree in Mathematics and also studied Philosophy.
On September 1 of the same year, Prevost entered the novitiate of the Order of Saint Augustine (O.S.A.) in Saint Louis, in the Province of Our Lady of Good Counsel of Chicago, and made his first profession on September 2, 1978. On August 29, 1981, he made his solemn vows.
The Pontiff received his theological education at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. At the age of 27, he was sent by his superiors to Rome to study Canon Law at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum).
In Rome, he was ordained a priest on June 19, 1982, at the Augustinian College of Saint Monica by Archbishop Jean Jadot, then pro-president of the Secretariat for Non-Christians, which later became the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and then the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue.
Prevost obtained his licentiate in 1984 and the following year, while preparing his doctoral thesis, was sent to the Augustinian mission in Chulucanas, Piura, Peru (1985–1986).
In 1987, he defended his doctoral thesis on “The Role of the Local Prior in the Order of Saint Augustine” and was appointed vocation director and missions director of the Augustinian Province of “Mother of Good Counsel” in Olympia Fields, Illinois (USA).
