VATICAN CITY (RNS) — In a shocking vote that caught the Catholic world by surprise, the College of Cardinals elected Robert Francis Prevost the 267th pope on Thursday (May 8). He is the first United States citizen to become the bishop of Rome.

The Chicago-born Prevost, 69, has chosen to take the name Pope Leo XIV, signaling a kinship with the 19th-century Pope Leo XIII, who was known for opening the doors of the church to the world and made Catholic social teaching a central issue during his pontificate.

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