Pope Leo XIV: Bishop of Chichester welcomes election 'with great joy'

Cardinal Robert Prevost has made his first appearance to jubilant crowds on the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica in Rome. The first ever American pontiff has become the leader of the Catholic Church following the death of Pope Francis.

The Bishop of Chichester, Dr Martin Warner, said on Thursday (May 8): “With Christians throughout the world, we welcome with great joy the announcement of the election of Pope Leo XIV. This is a moment of celebration and renewal for the Roman Catholic Church. It is also good news for all Christians.

"Pope Francis showed how the Pope can be an accessible and humble ambassador for the whole Church. We pray that God will give Pope Leo XIV the insight, wisdom and courage to continue the work of nurturing and encouraging Christian faith in the daily lives of ordinary people, a humane dimension of faith that reveals the compassion of God for all people.

"We give thanks for the prayerful work of the cardinals who have been guided by God to identify Pope Leo XIV as the new Bishop of Rome.

"As the successor of St Peter, one of the first disciples of Jesus Christ, Pope Leo XIV will face the structural challenges that confront every global institution today. Building consensus around the inheritance of faith will be central to his ministry. We assure him of our prayers for that serious undertaking, as we respond together in our own age to the challenging question that Jesus asked Peter: ‘Do you love me?’”

Emerging to cheers and applause from the people amassed in St Peter’s Square, the crowd were waving flags and chanting ‘Habemus Papam’ – the Latin for ‘we have a Pope’.

White smoke rose from the Sistine Chapel shortly after 5pm on Thursday sending a signal that a new pope had been selected. The secret conclave meeting – steeped in tradition and mystery – had only just begun some 24 hours earlier.

Cardinal Robert Prevost, is from Chicago and is fairly young for a Pope, at the age of 69. The new pontiff is the 267th Pope, becoming the religious leader of some 1.4 billion Catholics across the globe and someone believed to be called as the successor to St Peter, who was the first.

The 133 cardinals had voted on Wednesday evening and Thursday morning, with black smoke emitted from the chapel chimney twice, showing no-one had been elected. But in the bright sunshine of Thursday afternoon, white smoke began to billow out, with onlookers bearing witness to history as the Church confirmed it had its new leader.

Bells tolled to confirm the news – perhaps in a marker of the confusion at previous conclaves where the colour of the smoke was not completely clear. Each of the electors, mostly dressed in distinctive bright red vestments, had taken an oath pledging secrecy ahead of the process of casting anonymous ballots for their choice.

At a special mass ahead of the conclave, cardinals were reminded of the ‘choice of exceptional importance’ they must make. Three UK cardinals took part in conclave – Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Cardinal Timothy Radcliffe and Rome-based Cardinal Arthur Roche.

Cardinal Kevin Farrell, who also took part in the conclave, is Irish-born but has mainly ministered in the US and been based in Rome for some years. The voting cardinals – those aged under 80 who were the only ones eligible to cast a ballot – were urged to ‘invoke the help of the Holy Spirit’ to help them elect a pope “whom the Church and humanity need at this difficult and complex turning point in history’.

This conclave was thought to be one of the most diverse of any meeting of cardinals before, representing some 70 countries and hailing from places like Mongolia, Sweden and Tonga, which had not had a cardinal before. Pope Francis had appointed some 108 of the 133 cardinals who took part in the conclave to choose his successor.

The new Pope will have the challenge of following in the footsteps of the late Francis, whose popularity saw him dubbed ‘the people’s pope’. He had been vocal on politics, speaking out against war and climate change, and urged more focus on the poor and downtrodden of the world.

His death on Easter Monday prompted warm tributes from leaders across the globe and his funeral last month drew hundreds of thousands of mourners, including US president Donald Trump and UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.