VATICAN CITY: Cardinal Robert Prevost has taken the name Leo XIV. He is the first American pope in the 2,000-year history of the Catholic Church. As a missionary, Prevost, 69, spent his career ministering in Peru and led the Vatican’s powerful office of bishops.

White smoke poured out of the Sistine Chapel chimney Thursday at 6:07 pm local time, signaling that a pontiff had been elected to lead the Catholic Church.