Yet the cardinals in the Sistine Chapel chose Robert Francis Prevost, a 69-year-old Chicago native, as the 267th pope of the Roman Catholic Church. He has adopted the papal name Leo XIV. He’s the first American to hold the job.

White smoke billowed from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel and the great bells of St. Peter's Basilica rang out on Thursday, signaling that a new pope—the 267th leader of the Catholic Church—had been chosen on the second day of the conclave.