Vatican City — Of the 266 popes who have led the Catholic Church, not one of them had been from the United States. Until Thursday. The cardinal electors gathered for the papal conclave elected an American from among their own ranks on Thursday to serve as the new pontiff. Chicago-born Cardinal Robert Prevost was elected and accepted his fate as the next Bishop of Rome, leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics. He chose Leo XIV as his papal name.
While the relative youth of the nation, fewer than 20 of the church's previous popes had served after the U.S. Declaration of Independence in 1776, one prominent U.S. bishop offered possible explanation for the lack of an American leader of the world's Catholics a day before his election.
Robert Barron, bishop of the Diocese of Winona–Rochester in Minnesota, was appointed less than a week ago by President Trump to the new White House Commission on Religious Liberty. This week, however, he was at the Vatican with hundreds of other prelates as the cardinal electors gather for the conclave to choose a new pontiff.
Barron spent days speaking with the cardinals — including the 133 cardinal electors tasked with electing the new pope — as they tried to figure out among themselves who would be best to lead the church.
"Cardinal George of Chicago, of happy memory, was one of my great mentors, and he said: 'Look, until America goes into political decline, there won't be an American pope.' And his point was, if America is kind of running the world politically, culturally, economically, they don't want America running the world religiously. So, I think there's some truth to that, that we're such a superpower and so dominant, they don't wanna give us, also, control over the church."
But that trend was reversed on Thursday, and Prevost's name had popped up repeatedly amid the gossip over leading contenders for the role of pontiff.
He was undoubtedly qualified, as the only clear qualifications for the role of pontiff are that candidates be male and Roman Catholic. But emerging on top, with the necessary backing of just over two-thirds of the voting cardinal electors, required more than just eligibility.
Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost leads rosary prayers for the health of Pope Francis in St Peter's Square on March 3, 2025 in Vatican City.
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Originally from Chicago, Prevost has been the head of the church's Dicastery for Bishops. The powerful position means he oversaw the selection of new bishops.
For any cardinal electors who may have been turned off by Prevost's American nationality, it's not his only one. He's a dual citizen, holding nationality in both the U.S. and Peru, where he served for many years.
While Prevost is seen overall as a centrist, on some key social issues he's viewed as progressive. He has long embraced marginalized groups, a lot like Francis, who championed migrants and the poor.
But, also like Pope Francis, the Illinois native opposes ordaining women as deacons, for instance, so on that point he's seen as conservative on church doctrine.
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