VATICAN CITY, EUROPE – There was white smoke coming out of the Sistine Chapel as the College of Cardinals announced the selection of a new Pope today. American born Robert Francis Prevost has been 
officially elected the Bishop of Rome and the head of the Catholic Church. Pope Leo XIV, as he will now be known, was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1955 and is the first Pope ever from America. His ministry and preaching of the gospel included time in Latin America in Peru and Uruguay. This formal announcement came as the Cardinals announced “Habemus Papum” which is a Latin phrase directly translated as “We have a Pope”. Pope Leo XIV is the 267th Pope, with Saint Peter, one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ, being the first Pope. (Special thanks to The Vatican for contributing to this report).
