The Catholic Church now has a new Pope: American Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost. The new pontiff will be called Leo XIV. The white smoke caught the vast majority of the 40,000 faithful following the result of the fourth vote of the conclave in St Peter’s Square by surprise. An explosion of jubilation shook the heart of the Vatican, with faithful of all ages and backgrounds on the verge of tears. ‘She’s white!’ exclaimed a young Italian woman.

Pope Francis, Reformer of the Catholic Church, Dies at 88

The surrounding area of St Peter’s Square became a scramble for access to the area where, a few minutes after the announcement, a Swiss Guard parade began to welcome the new leader of the Catholic Church, who gave his blessing to Rome and the world.

The surprise was great, because when the bells of St Peter’s rang at 6pm, half an hour later than the time set for the smoke to rise from the chimney, there was nothing to suggest that the conclave had already made its final decision. Most of the faithful were set to return an hour later, which meant that many were caught by the white smoke at the access controls, turning back between runs. The new pope was elected on the fourth ballot of the conclave, just as Benedict XVI was in 2005.

In the morning, the 11,000 people in St. Peter’s Square had already been waiting impatiently for the first smoke of the day. At around 10.30 a.m., many expected to see a smoke that did not come and tried to find out on their mobile phones why the chimney was not emitting any signal (black or white). Around that time, the first morning vote of the conclave would have ended, and as it was unsuccessful, the cardinals proceeded to the second vote immediately and without smoke, as the rules of the papal election stipulate.

The first American Pope, Pope Leo XIV, is Robert Prevost from Chicago, and he gets emotional on the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican.

He is 69 years old and is viewed as a centrist, but is progressive on some key social issues.

Like Pope Francis who championed… pic.twitter.com/SqXqIk0Vdo

— Art Candee 🍿🥤 (@ArtCandee) May 8, 2025

In any case, almost an hour and a half later, the black smoke was ahead of schedule: at 11:51, the chimney of the Sistine expelled the black smoke into the sky, awakening widespread resignation, albeit contained in the Vatican Square, where the traffic of tourists was not particularly busy. Most did not expect to see the white smoke in the morning. “This afternoon we’ll come,” some of the tourists present said to each other.

The cardinal dean of the College of Cardinals, Giovanni Batista Re, had expressed early in the morning his prediction that it would be this afternoon that the conclave would decide on the new pontiff. And so it happened. “I hope that on my return to Rome this afternoon I will find the white smoke,” Re said from Pompeii, where he had gone to officiate at a religious ceremony. Re, 91, cannot vote in the conclave because he is over 80.

After the first vote, the cardinals retired to Santa Marta to eat, rest and discuss the first three votes. Afterwards, they returned to the Sistine Chapel to vote twice again. Vatican experts suggested that it is during these breaks in the Vatican Residence that, after several ballots, support begins to be decided and unity candidates for the following ballots begin to emerge. And it seems they were right. There was an evening Pope in the Vatican.

Former Pope Benedict XVI dies at 95

The last two conclaves (2005 and 2013) that elected Francis and Benedict XVI needed 5 and 4 ballots respectively, so they were elected on the second day. The new Pope has therefore coincided with Benedict, the late Cardinal Ratzinger. Before that, in 1978, Cardinal Karok Wojtyla needed 8 ballots (i.e. three days) to become Pope John Paul II: the Polish cardinal was not among the favourites, among whom the Italian cardinals Siri and Benelli stood out. Nor was Bergoglio a favourite in 2013, with Italy’s Angelo Scola the leading candidate to succeed Ratzinger as pope.

-Thailand News (TN)