Pope Francis Dies; Leo XIV Elected First American Pope
Pope Francis had been hospitalized for more than five weeks in early 2025 with double pneumonia and a complex respiratory infection, prompting widespread concern about his health; he was discharged in late March and made a series of limited public appearances, including blessing crowds from the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica on Easter Sunday, April 20. He died the following morning, April 21, 2025, of a stroke followed by irreversible cardiac arrest, ending a twelve-year pontificate marked by an emphasis on mercy, environmental stewardship, and outreach to the poor and marginalized. Following the traditional nine days of mourning (novemdiales) and his funeral and burial at the Basilica of St. Mary Major -- the first pope in over a century to be buried outside the Vatican -- the College of Cardinals convened a conclave of 133 electors in the Sistine Chapel on May 7, 2025. After an inconclusive first-day vote signaled by black smoke, white smoke rose over the Sistine Chapel on the afternoon of May 8, 2025, announcing the election of Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, a 69-year-old Chicago-born member of the Order of Saint Augustine who had spent much of his ministry in Peru -- as a missionary, seminary teacher, and, from 2015 to 2023, Bishop of Chiclayo, where he was widely credited with pastoral responsiveness during flooding, poverty, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Francis had brought Prevost to Rome in 2023 to head the Dicastery for Bishops, the office responsible for vetting episcopal appointments worldwide, and made him a cardinal that same year, positioning him -- though few predicted his election -- as a figure trusted across the Church's geographic and ideological spectrum. Taking the name Leo XIV, he became the first pope born in the United States, a milestone many had long assumed the College of Cardinals would avoid given America's global political weight; his decades in Latin America and dual US-Peruvian citizenship were widely read as softening that novelty. His first apostolic exhortation, Dilexi Te, extended Francis's preferential option for the poor, and he signaled a more consultative style by announcing regular annual meetings with the full College of Cardinals as an advisory body.
- Year: 2025 CE
- Category: Religious
