White smoke billows from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel, signalling that a new pope has been chosen. Thousands of onlookers in St Peter's Square cheer and applaud, many overcome with emotion, as the bells of St Peter's Basilica ring out across the Eternal City.
The newly elected pontiff is Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, a 69-year-old Chicago native, marking a historic first for the Catholic Church. He becomes the first pope born in the United States — and indeed all of North America — in the Church's 2,000-year history. He takes the name Pope Leo XIV.
