Leo XIV of the United States (Robert Francis Prebost, 69) has been elected as the 267th pope. Online, the bright smiles of Cardinal Yoo Heung-sik of Korea and other cardinals who were eliminated from the papacy have became a hot topic.
On the 8th (local time), according to the Associated Press and others, the senior cardinal deacon appeared on the ' balcony of blessing' of St. Peter's Basilica in the afternoon, exclaiming 'Habemus Papam' (We have a pope) to officially declare the birth of the new pope. Then, Cardinal Prebost was elected as pope, and the papal name was announced as 'Leo XIV.'
Leo XIV was elected as the new pope by receiving more than two-thirds of the votes from the 133 cardinal electors in the fourth vote of the conclave (the secret meeting of cardinals) that began the previous day. All cardinals under 80 years old are eligible to be candidates and voters in the conclave. Voting is repeated until there is a two-thirds majority. No one knows when the schedule will be completed, and they are thoroughly isolated from the outside until a new pope is elected.
In 1214, a pope was born after just two months, and there were instances where popes died two weeks after their election due to confinement-related issues. The longest conclave record is 2 years and 9 months, which lasted until the election of Gregory X in 1268.
Therefore, the results being announced on the second day can be considered relatively early. In the conclaves of 2005 (Benedict XVI) and 2013 (Francis), results also came out on the second day. The number of voting rounds conducted were 4 and 5, respectively.
Perhaps for this reason, when the new pope first appeared on the 'balcony of blessing' of St. Peter's Basilica, the expressions of the cardinals blessing him appeared very bright. Although they were eliminated in the election of the pope, they seemed to have casual conversations or looked up at the sky with bright smiles. In contrast, the newly elected Pope Leo XIV appeared somewhat rigid.
Online, it was speculated that the cardinals' true feelings were 'as long as it's not me,' and 'I'm going home now.' Netizens reacted with comments such as, 'They clearly lost the election, yet they are smiling brightly,' 'Look at the cardinals smiling,' 'There isn’t a single person looking gloomy,' 'Cardinal Yoo Heung-sik seems to be the most cheerful among them,' and 'In fact, the expression of the elected Pope Leo XIV seems the worst.'
Meanwhile, Pope Leo XIV, born in 1955 in Chicago, United States, worked as a missionary in Peru for 20 years. He acquired Peruvian citizenship in 2015 and was appointed as the Archbishop of Peru in the same year. There are analyses suggesting that his background of serving in marginalized areas, despite being an American, influenced his election as pope.
Pope Leo XIV is expected to visit Korea in 2027 for the World Youth Day (WYD), a major faith festival for young Catholics worldwide, which will be held in Seoul. If Pope Leo XIV comes to Korea for the World Youth Day, it will be recorded as his fourth visit, and it will be the first papal visit to Korea in 13 years since Francis in 2014.