Leo XIV celebrated ... Thursday became the 267th pope, spiritual head of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics and successor to Argentina's Pope Francis, after a secret conclave by his fellow cardinals in the Vatican's Sistine Chapel. "The American pope ...

On Friday, Pope Leo XIV presided over his first mass as Pope for Cardinals at the Sistine Chapel.

Newly installed Pope Leo XIV has held a Mass with cardinals in the Sistine Chapel on Friday, a day after he was elected as the surprise choice to be the leader of the Catholic Church, becoming the first American pontiff.

A Chicago-born cardinal walks into a conclave. The rest of the joke tells itself. In the breathless day since Pope Leo XIV’s election as the first American pontiff, the memes, doctored images and tongue-in-cheek references have piled up deeper than Chicago’s pizza and more loaded than its hot dog.

Pope Leo XIV, the first American pontiff, gave his first homily from the Sistine Chapel on Friday in a move that could signify how he intends to lead the Catholic Church.

The temporary chimney atop the Sistine Chapel released a plume of white smoke on Thursday evening local time, signaling that the 133 cardinals working inside had reached a two-thirds majority to elect a new pope for the Catholic Church.