Editor’s Note: The following are live updates from Dr. Steve Harmon who is reporting on the papal conclave from the Vatican for Good Faith Media.
At 6:08 p.m. in Rome (11:08 a.m. CST) today (Thursday, May 8), I was sitting in the Holy See Press Office briefing room with the press pool keeping up with the “chimney cam” on the video monitors.
I had just noticed a couple of seagulls with a seagull chick perched beside the chimney on the roof above the Sistine Chapel. I snapped a photo moments before white smoke started billowing from the chimney to wild cheers inside the press room and in the square outside. We ran into the square as fast as we could, grabbed gear, and streamed out of the press room.
I jumped a couple of barricades (the press badge lets you get away with a lot here) to get into the middle of the street leading out into the square. I shot a quick video for Good Faith Media, jumped back over one barricade, slid under another and ran back into the press room to get a WiFi signal to get the video to our editors.
Now I’m back inside the press room, where we have both a WiFi signal and a Vatican video and audio feed that will allow us to know what happens next, including discerning the identity of the new pope when presented on the balcony, much better than the crowd outside in St. Peter’s Square.
The following will be my close-to-live written reporting on what we learn as we learn it. Right now, it’s 7:06 p.m. in Rome (12:06 p.m. CST).
Before I began writing this, on the monitors we saw uniformed marching bands parading into the front portion of the square immediately in front of the steps leading up to St. Peter’s Basilica, accompanied by members of the colorfully attired Swiss Guard.
7:12 p.m. (12:12 p.m. CST)
Now we see people on the balcony.
The name has been announced—Cardinal Robert Prevost, who was born in Chicago. We have a North American Pope! He was the Prefect for the Dicastery of Bishops; he was a missionary bishop and then archbishop in Peru, and he became a dual American and Peruvian citizen.
He also served as the prior general of the Augustinian religious order to which he belongs. He has taken the name Leo XIV. (Leo XIII became pope in 1878.)
According to a preview article of the papabile (possible popes) published by CBS, “While Prevost is seen overall as a centrist, on some key social issues he’s viewed as progressive. He has long embraced marginalized groups, a lot like Francis, who championed migrants and the poor.”
According to that piece, he also opposed ordaining women as deacons. However, it should be noted that Pope Francis also opposed doing so.
7:23 p.m. (12:23 p.m. CST)
Pope Leo XIV has appeared on the balcony in white papal robes, a scarlet cape, and a ruby red and gold stole. He is smiling and waving to the crowd and speaking to them in what seems to be impeccable Italian. (Impeccability is a Catholic ecclesial thing, so I suppose I intended the pun.)
7:32 p.m. (12:32 p.m. CST)
Now, he’s speaking in Spanish and describing his time as a missionary bishop in Peru.
7:37 p.m. (12:37 p.m. CST)
He has finished speaking, and as the crowd in St. Peter’s Square cheers wildly, he is visibly moved and fighting back tears.
More later from Good Faith Media!
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Professor of Historical Theology at Gardner-Webb University. Harmon is serving as a GFM correspondent for the papal conclave in Rome.
