Robert Francis Prevost has been elected the first pope from the United States, the Vatican announced.
A moderate who was close to Pope Francis and spent years as a missionary in Peru, he became the Catholic Church's 267th pontiff, taking the papal name Leo XIV.
Cardinals chose a new pope to lead the world's 1.4 billion Catholics on Thursday, sending up white smoke from the Sistine Chapel on their second day of voting in conclave.
Tens of thousands of people packed in St Peter's Square cheered, applauded and wept as the smoke appeared, while the bells of St Peter's Basilica and churches across Rome rang out.
Crowds of people rushed towards the square to watch the balcony of the basilica, which has been fitted out with red curtains for the first address to the world by the 267th pope.
Pope Francis, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in 1936, walked with the margins, chose no crown, no crypt — just dust and prayer. From the peripheries to the papacy, Francis now returns, humbly, to the earth he never stopped loving.
Successor of Pope Francis
The new pontiff, who succeeds Argentine reformer Pope Francis, was introduced in Latin with his chosen papal name and addressed the world for the first time.
"It's an amazing feeling," said an elated Joseph Brian, a 39-year-old chef from Belfast in Northern Ireland, who came with his mother to Rome for the spectacle.
"I'm not an overly religious person, but being here with all these people just blew me away," he told AFP as people around him jumped up and down in excitement.
There were euphoric scenes as one priest sat on someone's shoulders waving a Brazilian flag, and another lifted a heavy crucifix into the air in jubilation.
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Christians around the world gathered to remember the life and mourn the passing of Pope Francis—the first ever leader of the Catholic Church from the Global South
