Live reactions from Rome and from our guests as Cardinal Robert Prevost is elected the first American pope

USA Cardinal Robert Prevost was elected the new pope and leader of the Roman Catholic Church on Thursday and has taken the name Pope Leo XIV a senior cardinal announced to crowds in St. Peter's Square.

The Catholic Church has announced its new pope, Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost The American Augustiinian priest in a short address after his presentation

White smoke poured from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel and the bells of St. Peter’s Basilica rang out Thursday, signaling that the cardinals had elected the 267th pope to lead the Catholic Church.

The 69-year-old American who has spent much of his career as a missionary in Peru is a relative unknown on the global stage.

Cardinal Robert Prevost, an American 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 2,000-year history of the Catholic Church. Prevost, 69, took the name Leo XIV. From the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica, history’s…

SCHIAVON, Italy (AP) — Pope Leo XIV 's choice of name signals a commitment to social justice that is very much in line with the late Pope Francis ' global ministry. “I think a lot us had a question mark when they elected an American, and then he selected the name Pope Leo XIV,”…