Pope Leo XIV live updates: Cardinal hopes Pope Leo will 'build a bridge' with Trump

Pope Leo XIV will be the Catholic Church's 267th leader.

kabc
Last updated: Friday, May 9, 2025 5:08PM GMT
American cardinals give insight into election of Pope Leo XIV
American cardinals give insight into election of Pope Leo XIVJoe Torres has more on what the U.S. cardinals had to say about the historic election of Pope Leo XIV.

VATICAN CITY -- The temporary chimney atop the Sistine Chapel released a plume of white smoke on Thursday evening local time, signaling that the 133 cardinals working inside had reached a two-thirds majority to elect a new pope for the Catholic Church.

American Cardinal Robert Prevost was shortly thereafter announced as the 267th pontiff. He chose the name Leo XIV, a senior cardinal deacon announced.

The 69-year-old Chicago native is the first American pope and is seen as a diplomat in the church.

"This is the first greeting of the risen Christ. May the peace be with you," Leo said in Italian in his first remarks as pope. "This is the peace of the risen Christ."

(The Associated Press and ABC News contributed to this report.)

ABCNews
May 09, 2025, 7:00 AM

Watch 'The American Pope | Leo XIV'

Pope Leo XIV - history-making, the first American Pope. Now, David Muir reports from the Vatican in the breaking, new "20/20" special edition. Watch the premiere of "The American Pope | Leo XIV" tonight at 9/8c on ABC. Stream on Hulu and Disney+

ABCNews
May 07, 2025, 8:03 PM GMT

How long will the conclave last?

A new pope could be elected as soon as the first ballot on Wednesday, or the process could continue for days. Since 1831, no conclave has lasted more than four days.

Up to four rounds of voting typically take place in a day. If no clear choice has emerged after three days, balloting is suspended for 24 hours to allow cardinal electors time to reflect. Another seven rounds of balloting then takes place, followed by another break, and so on.

If no pope is elected after 33 or 34 votes -- generally about 13 days -- then a new rule introduced by Pope Benedict XVI decrees the two leading candidates as determined by previous ballots will engage in a runoff vote. If the candidates are members of the conclave, they cannot vote in the runoff but are present for it. Whichever candidate receives the necessary two-thirds majority of the votes is the new pope.

Cardinal Jean-Paul Vesco, the archbishop of Algiers, told ABC News it would be "unexpected" if the conclave goes past Friday.

kabc
May 07, 2025, 7:44 PM GMT

Black smoke spews from chimney after 1st conclave vote

Black smoke spewed from the Sistine Chapel chimney after the 1st conclave vote Wednesday, meaning a new pope has not yet been selected.

Cardinals will continue to vote until white smoke appears, meaning a pope has been selected.

Black smoke billows from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel during the cardinals' conclave to elect a new pope, at the Vatican, Wednesday, May 7, 2025.
Black smoke billows from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel during the cardinals' conclave to elect a new pope, at the Vatican, Wednesday, May 7, 2025.
ABCNews
May 07, 2025, 5:03 PM GMT

What the conclave voting process is like

The balloting process for the papal conclave may be shrouded in secrecy, but it is straightforward.

Each conclave member writes his choice on a paper ballot slip and folds it once in half. He then carries it aloft between two fingers as he walks to the altar.

The slip is then deposited into a special urn used only for the balloting process.

Conclave members are instructed to write their votes "as far as possible in handwriting that cannot be identified as his" to ensure anonymity.

Any conclave member who cannot make it in person to the Sistine Chapel due to illness or infirmity casts his ballot from this room in the Domus Marthae Sanctae. Those ballots are placed in a lockbox and carried to the Sistine Chapel.

Three scrutineers then count the votes by affirming what is written on each ballot and announcing it to the conclave, which allows the cardinals to record the votes themselves.

The first candidate to secure two-thirds of the votes is elected as the next pope.

ABCNews
May 07, 2025, 4:40 PM GMT

American pope would be 'unlikely'

The prospect of an American becoming pope is "very unlikely," according to Dr. Miles Pattenden, a historian of the Catholic Church and a lecturer of history at Oxford University in England.

"There has traditionally been a lot of wariness about a pope from the Anglosphere," Pattenden said. "I shouldn't think that the current circumstances change that, especially now with the tensions between the Vatican and the Trump administration."

An American cardinal, Robert Prevost, has nevertheless started to emerge as a front-runner for the papacy, according to Father James Martin, a papal contributor for ABC.

-ABC News' Bill Hutchinson and Megan Forrester