graphic of cardinals as they file into the sistine chapel

Coverage of the 2025 Papal Conclave by Paul Gleiser


The thing that couldn't happen.

The consensus among all “experts” on the Catholic Church has been that there would simply never be an American pope.

And on a Thursday evening on St. Peter’s Square in Rome, out onto the papal balcony walked Chicago native Robert Prevost, bearing the new name, Pope Leo XIV.

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