Robert Francis Prevost, 69, will be the 267th occupant of the throne of St Peter and he will be known as Leo XIV.
He is the first American to fill the role of pope, although he is considered as much a cardinal from Latin America because of the many years he spent as a missionary in Peru.
Born in Chicago in 1955 to parents of Spanish and Franco-Italian descent, Prevost served as an altar boy and was ordained in 1982.
Although he moved to Peru three years later, he returned regularly to the US to serve as a pastor and a prior in his home city.
He has Peruvian nationality and is fondly remembered as a figure who worked with marginalized communities and helped build bridges. He spent 10 years as a local parish pastor and as a teacher at a seminary in Trujillo in north-western Peru.
In 2014, Francis made him Bishop of Chiclayo in Peru. He is well known to cardinals because of his high-profile role as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops in Latin America which has the important task of selecting and supervising bishops. He became archbishop in January 2023 and within a few months Francis made him a cardinal.
Although Prevost was born in the US, the Vatican described him as the second pope from the Americas (Francis was from Argentina).
During his time in Peru, he was unable to escape the sexual abuse scandals that have clouded the Church, even though his diocese has fervently denied he has been involved in any attempted cover-up.
In choosing the name Leo, Prevost has signified a commitment to dynamic social issues, according to experts.
The first pontiff to use the name Leo, whose papacy ended in 461, met Attila the Hun and persuaded him not to attack Rome. The last Pope Leo led the Church from 1878 to 1903 and wrote an influential treatise on workers' rights.
