Tens of thousands of faithful crammed into St. Peter’s Square exchanged befuddled looks when Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost was announced as pope from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica.
They knew Cardinals Pizzaballa and Parolin and Tagle. But Prevost?
A few people with cellphone reception started searching online as the news began to ripple through the crowd.
“I think they just elected an American pope,” said Nicole Serena, 21, a student who is in Rome studying marketing.
Wait — an American?
Some faces fell.
“Maybe he’s a good guy?” said Catalina Zaza, 27, an Argentine art student in Rome who had been rooting for Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of the Philippines to succeed Pope Francis. “We don’t know.”
A little over an hour earlier, when white smoke had started billowing from the chimney above the Sistine Chapel, the crowd erupted with joy. “Habemus papam!” the faithful screamed.
Some people hugged. Others raised their hands to rejoice in prayer. Some briefly sang the Italian national anthem. Crowds surged forward toward the basilica, packing tightly inside barricades, to learn who the new pope would be.
Once he was announced, as Pope Leo XIV, the crowd began to chant, at first somewhat timidly: “Papa Leone!”
Then, Leo stepped out.
The people in the square shrieked with delight.
“Peace be with you,” he said in Italian.
Only once Leo paid homage to Pope Francis did many of the those gathered appear to relax. Ms. Zaza and her friend Sofía Basanes, 30, also from Argentina, started to nod at the new pope’s calls for peace, justice, dialogue and love. Next to them, a young priest sobbed, and an older nun’s eyes glistened with tears.
And when Leo began to speak in Spanish, the crowd broke into enthusiastic applause. “He lived in Peru!” one man yelled in Spanish. “Peruuuu!”
Leo did not speak in English or mention the United States.
By the end, Ms. Basanes was crying, along with quite a few others around her. “We have so much faith in Pope Francis’ legacy,” she said.
Ms. Zaza, standing beside her, added: “At the beginning, I was a little suspicious, I didn’t know. But now, I think it’s good.”
“I think it’s good, the fact that he’s an American,” she added, “because in this moment when there’s a big figure like Trump in the government, maybe he can create a bridge between believers and, I don’t know, try to make this world a little more peaceful.”
Not everyone agreed.
“I am surprised and a bit disappointed,” said Adam Mocarski, 31, who had traveled to Rome from Poland. “We all know about Donald Trump and Elon Musk.”
Fabio Vagnarelli, a 42-year-old Roman actor, said he had expected an Asian pope. His mother-in-law, Aurora De Rubeis, 75, a retired teacher, said she had expected an Italian.
After listening to Leo, Mr. Vagnarelli said he was impressed by the new pope’s message. Leo’s first words, he said, were “very human, very empathetic, very emotional.”
Two beaming Americans, Sean Sikora, from Oklahoma, and Cole Wendling, from Texas, clutched an American flag as strangers congratulated them. “You won today,” a tall man draped in a Canadian flag shouted out, to a roar of good-hearted laughter from the crowd.
“From the crowd, there’s been lots of love, lots of joy,” Mr. Wendling, 29, said, as chants of “U.S.A.! U.S.A!” broke out behind him.
Matthew Mpoke Bigg, Motoko Rich, Bernhard Warner and Josephine de La Bruyère contributed reporting.