After two days of voting, white smoke billowing from the Sistine Chapel chimney indicates a new leader of the Catholic Church has been elected.
Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost is originally from Chicago and will be known as Pope Leo XIV.
Never in the history of the Roman Catholic Church has there been an American pope.
Catholic cardinals agreed on a pope on the second day of voting. The announcement of the election of the new pope was first made known with white smoke that emerged from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel.
A third voting by the Cardinals was what resulted in the election of the new Pope.
The 133 cardinals who elected Pope Francis’s successor were locked in the Sistine Chapel, their only method of communication with the outside world was signals from its chimney.
The pouring out of the white smoke from the Sistine Chapel chimney, signalling that a pope has been elected to lead the Catholic Church was greeted with cheers, applause and the sounding of the bell.
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That means the winner secured at least 89 votes of the 133 cardinals participating in the conclave to elect a successor to Pope Francis.
The name will be announced later, when a top cardinal utters the words “Habemus papam!” Latin for “We have a pope!” from the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica. The cardinal then reads the winner’s birth name in Latin and reveals the name he has chosen to be called.
