JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) – Cardinal Robert Prevost was elected the first American pope in the 2,000-year history of the Catholic Church.

Prevost, a 69-year-old member of the Augustinian religious order, took the name Leo XIV. The crowd in St. Peter’s Square erupted in cheers, priests made the sign of the cross and nuns wept as the crowd shouted “Viva il papa!”

Catholics in Mississippi were surprised the cardinals chose an American pope.

“As the newscaster said, there was an audible gasp. And, I mean, I had the same reaction. I went, ‘An American pope.’ I couldn’t believe it, but I’m thrilled for it,” said Ed Prybylski, a Mississippi resident.

Prevost had been a leading candidate for the papacy, but there had long been a taboo against a U.S. pope, given the country’s geopolitical power already wielded in the secular sphere. But Prevost was seemingly eligible because he’s also a Peruvian citizen and lived for years in Peru, first as a missionary and then as an archbishop.

Pope Francis sent Prevost to take over a complicated diocesan situation in Peru, then brought him to the Vatican in 2023 to serve as the powerful head of the office that vets bishop nominations from around the world, one of the most important jobs in the Catholic Church. And in January, he elevated him into the senior ranks of cardinals.

The last pope to take the name Leo was Leo XIII, an Italian who led the church from 1878 to 1903. That Leo softened the church’s confrontational stance toward modernity, especially science and politics and laid the foundation for modern Catholic social thought, most famously with his 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum, which addressed workers’ rights and capitalism at the beginning of the industrial revolution.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.