Like the other ceremonies and traditions that accompany the advent of a new pope, his newly chosen name will be imbued with centuries of Catholic history and dissected for its many layers of meaning.

The Vatican announced the election of Pope Leo XIV shortly after white smoke blew from the roof of the Sistine Chapel on Thursday. The pope's birth name is Robert Francis Prevost. He is the first pope ...

Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, 69, took the name Leo XIV after the papal conclave elected him the Catholic Church's 267th pope – the first from the U.S. – on Thursday. The conclave's choice of ...

The name a new pope chooses will "indicate a certain spirit and direction and vision of the new pope," said Dennis Doyle, a theologian and professor emeritus of religious studies at the University of ...