After a little more than 24 hours of anticipation, the telltale white smoke rose from the Sistine Chapel on Thursday — signaling that the Roman Catholic Church’s 133 eligible cardinals had come to a two-thirds majority vote on who the next pope should be. The bells of St. Peter’s Basilica chimed, the crowd in St. Peter’s Square waved flags from different continents and chants could be heard: “Viva il Papa!” Long live the pope.

About an hour later, Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost emerged on the central balcony of the basilica in Vatican City as the new leader of the world’s largest Christian denomination — donned in the white papal cassock for the first time.

His chosen papal name: Leo XIV. He will now lead more than a billion Catholics around the world — including 53 million American Catholics. 

Throngs of priests, nuns and Vatican employees could be seen on the surrounding rooftops, trying to catch a glimpse of their new spiritual father. 

The conclave — a historically secretive and solemn election attended only by older men in red cloaks — had a wider following this time around, particularly among the young, non-religious and perpetually online. 

In the days after Pope Francis died, social media platforms were flooded with conclave content as people began posting videos, memes and pope predictions as if talking about a celebrity gala or reality television show — instead of the extremely secretive and solemn election. Church leaders issued reminders that betting on the conclave results was immoral as it used to be an excommunicable offense. One Canadian conservative magazine even resurfaced a video of Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, who is from the Philippines, singing John Lennon’s “Imagine.” It quickly went viral. Influencers wore paper skull caps to mimic Catholic cardinals and video compilations of clergy were mixed with Charli XCX audio. The real conclave also came after the 2024 release of a movie called “Conclave” — sparking more widespread interest in the religious event. 

There have been 266 popes from St. Peter — who was given the role by Jesus himself — to Pope Francis. Of those, 212 have been Italian men, but for the past 47 years, the world has known popes from other parts of the world. Pope John Paul II was the first Polish pontiff; Pope Benedict XVI was German; and Pope Francis, an Argentine, was the first from South America. And now there will be a new first – a pope from the United States.