How Leo became pope

How Leo became the unexpected pope

The conclave is shrouded in secrecy, and many of the dealings that lead up to it remain in the shadows, but since the end of the conclave some cardinals have offered glimpses to what happened in the hours that led up to Leo’s election.

On the first evening, the cardinals cast their first round votes, but black smoke billowed from the chimney, meaning no pope was chosen. 

The cardinals adjourned for the night to Casa Santa Marta, the guesthouse wheremost of them were staying — and eating. Cardinal Wilton Gregory said that “a lot of dialog occurred at mealtime, coffee breaks, those moments when you can engage in smaller groups.”

“The only method is the human method, to get to talk to another, the dialogue, to listen to one another,” Cardinal Robert McElroy, Archbishop of Washington.

The next morning the cardinals returned to the Sistine Chapel and two more ballots were cast, but black smoke emerged once again.

“Voting is like watching a glacier move, but sometimes glaciers under stress move a lot faster,” Tobin said. 

And while conclaves in centuries past could stretch for weeks, Prevost’s election began to take shape on the second day. 

“There was a great movement on the second day, a great movement within the body that could be nothing other than the grace of God moving us toward this consensus.”

During a press conference on Saturday, Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of the Philippines, himself considered one of the leading candidates for pope, said he was seated next to Prevost.

In the minutes after his election, when the new pope was gasping for air as the weight of his new role descended on him, Tagle said he asked him if he wanted a piece of candy. Prevost accepted and Tagle pulled one from a pocket beneath his cardinal’s robe, “that’s my first act of charity,” he said he told Prevost, jokingly, “for our new Holy Father.”

Soon after, Prevost emerged on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica as Pope Leo XIV, proof of an efficient and successful conclave.

“This wasn’t our first rodeo,” Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York said. “We’ve been through this 268 times.”