Cardinal Dominique Mamberti announces the election of the new pope, at the Vatican, Thursday, May 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Cardinal Robert Prevost, a missionary who spent his career ministering in Peru and leads the Vatican’s powerful office of bishops, was elected the first American pope in the 2,000-year history of the Catholic Church.

Prevost, 69, took the name Leo XIV.