RECAP | Cardinal Robert Prevost elected Pope, making him the 1st American to hold the title

With that, we're wrapping up our two days of live updates on the conclave. A new Pope has been elected after just four rounds of voting by 133 cardinals. Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, an American from Chicago who is also a Peruvian citizen, chose his pontificate name to be Pope Leo XIV.

He delivered a message of peace in his first address to the world, starting with the words, "Peace be with you all."

Prevost is described as being a quiet and sensitive man who has done missionary work in addition to his roles as a bishop and archbishop.

You can read more about him in this profile.

For more facts about the conclave process, we have this story.

And lastly, you can browse photos of the historic day here.

Hi folks, I’m a senior writer with the politics team in Ottawa.

Canada’s leaders are offering their prayers and best wishes to the newly elected Pope.

Prime Minister Mark Carney called it a “historic day” in a post on X.

“I offer my prayers and best wishes to His Holiness Pope Leo XIV on his election, an historic day for Catholics and all who look to the Vatican for guidance. At a time of global challenges, may his pontificate carry forward a mission of solidarity, compassion and dignity for all,” the prime minister wrote.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre took to X to note the significance of Pope Leo being the first North American pontiff.

“As the first Pope from North America, I am hopeful that his tenure will be particularly meaningful for Canadian Catholics. May his tenure as Supreme Pontiff help lead the Catholic Church to renew the faith of its members and help promote peace, justice and truth throughout the world,” Poilievre wrote.

Both Carney and Poilievre are Catholic.

Hi I’m Laura Fraser, a senior writer and editor with CBC News.

In Lima, the bells of the capital city's cathedral could be heard in the streets as Cardinal Robert Prevost was pronounced the new Pope.

The Peruvian faithful celebrated, claiming Pope Leo XIV as one of their own since he holds dual American and Peruvian citizenship.

“For us Peruvians, it is a source of pride that this is a Pope who represents our country," elementary school teacher Isabel Panez told the Associated Press.

Leo spoke in Spanish for parts of his first public address, a nod to the residents of Chiclayo, the city in northwest Peru where he served as the administrator in 2014 and later as archbishop until he was called to Rome in 2023.

Those who knew him during his mission there described him as someone who “would put on boots and wade through the mud” to help those in need, with Janinna Sesa telling AP Leo would deliver food and blankets to remote Andean villages.

You may have caught a glimpse of those puffy gold and blue-striped pants and shiny metal helmets with buoyant red feathers. That's the Swiss Guard, the Vatican's elite unit charged with protecting the Pope.

The outfits are worn in honour of the nearly 150 guards who died while defending Pope Clement VII during the siege of Rome in 1527.

Hello everyone, I’m Sheena Goodyear, digital producer for CBC Radio’s As It Happens.

Pope Leo XIV's first words when he greeted his followers at the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica were: "Peace be with all of you."

For Neil McCarthy, that's a positive sign of what's to come.

McCarthy is the director of communications of the Catholic archdiocese of Toronto and was outside the Vatican in Rome on Thursday when the first American Pope emerged.

“There's so much division,” he told As It Happens host Nil Köksal, pointing to wars in the Middle East and Ukraine and escalating violence between India and Pakistan in recent days.

“I think leading with peace, leading with love, leading with acceptance is something that, hopefully, we model as people of faith, people who are called to model the example of Jesus Christ.

“I pray that Pope Leo XIV will embrace that. I have no doubt that he will.”

The robes Pope Leo stepped out in may not be entirely new. For the first time, two of the three cassocks that were waiting in the Room of Tears, that small sacristy just off the Sistine Chapel, are recycled. The small and large cassocks are holdovers from the 2013 conclave, stored under cellophane for 12 years and now refreshed for reuse. Only the medium-sized garment was recently sewn.

It's a quiet nod to Pope Francis’s push for a "circular economy" in the church, a concept championed in his green encyclical Laudato Si’, which Canadian Cardinal Michael Czerny had a hand in writing. It’s also consistent with the spending reviews he introduced early in his papacy.

Ecclesiastical tailor Raniero Mancinelli (read my profile of him here) has made cassocks for three popes, and was hoping one of his would be included among the "virgin cassocks." Instead, that honour went to another Vatican tailor, Ety Cicioni.

Cicioni — who makes all the Swiss Guard uniforms, not to mention ecclesiastical garb for Hollywood movies — updated the older robes and made the new medium one from scratch in his atelier inside Vatican City.

One of the first acts of the new pope is to select his new name. This will be different from his baptismal name.

As the Vatican News site explains, this is a precedent set by the first Pope, Saint Peter, whose birth name was Simon. And it signifies that the election is akin to a second birth.

That said, not every pope does it. The Vatican News site notes that of the 266 popes in history, 129 have chosen new names.

The most common names have been: John, Gregory, Benedict and Pius.

In the history of the church, 13 popes have previously chosen the name Leo. Of those, five have been declared saints.

The first Leo, Pope Leo the Great, was pope from 440 to 461. When he died in 461, he became the first pontiff buried in St. Peter’s Basilica, notes the Vatican News site.

According to Reuters, the last pope to take the name Leo led the church from 1878-1903 and was known for his devoted focus to social justice issues and is often credited with laying the foundation for modern Catholic social teachings.

"By picking the name Leo XIV, he shows he is committed to the social teaching of the church," Rev. Thomas Reese, a Jesuit commentator who follows the papacy closely, told Reuters.

He’s only been on the job for a few hours, but Pope Leo XIV’s first appointments have already been set.

A Vatican spokesman shared Leo’s agenda with The Associated Press, which so far, looks like this:

• Friday: Leo will celebrate mass at 11 a.m. local time with cardinals in the Sistine Chapel
• Sunday: Leo plans to deliver his first Sunday noon blessing from the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica.
• Monday: He plans to hold an audience with the media in the Vatican auditorium.

Speaking at the Catholic archdiocese of Edmonton, Bishop William McGrattan, the president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, said he'd met Prevost many times as the new Pope used to head the dicastery for bishops.

"I found him to be very sensitive. I would say, a person who listens first before speaking," McGrattan said at a news conference.

The bishop said he believes Prevost's experience working in missions will bring the perspective "that the Church is universal and the Church needs to speak to all peoples of all countries."

McGrattan added that Prevost had a kind of depth to him and a clear "sense of justice."

"A very quiet man but very somewhat humble in his demeanor," he said. "I hope that the world will begin to see this as he begins his pontificate."

The Canadian bishop called it "extraordinary" that the new Pope's first address was on handwritten notes.

"But he did talk about the issues that are pressing: peace in the world, the issue of many injustices. And I think that is setting the tone for what he wants to continue in terms of the papacy, that we need to be reconciling, we need to be bridges in which the voice of peace," McGrattan said.