The new Pope is a “citizen of the world” and the moment he accepted his election inside the secret conclave meeting brought “elation”, a cardinal who was there has said.
The leader of Catholics in England and Wales, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, spoke of a “quite remarkable spirit of fraternity” during the time he and 132 others were sequestered away from the world to elect the new leader.
Cardinal Nichols, who is the Archbishop of Westminster, described Pope Leo XIV as gentle and calm, as well as decisive and unifying.
He told reporters in Rome: “He’s been a teacher, he’s been a diocesan bishop, he’s been a member of the Roman Curia.
“That’s a combination of talents that, I think, once it emerged and we’d reflected on the life of the Church, made it pretty clear that here was a man who was bringing the right depth and breadth of experience to the papacy.”
Of Pope Leo’s personality, Cardinal Nichols said: “As a person, I’ve known him for a few years. He’s got a very gentle manner, he’s very calm. He’s quite clear in his mind.
“He can be decisive. I’ve seen him resolve difficulties in a way that didn’t leave enemies behind him and he can hold people together.”
Being Chicago-born but having spent many years in Peru, and more recently in Rome, Cardinal Nichols said of the new Pope: “I would describe him as a citizen of the world.”
Each of the cardinals took an oath of secrecy about the conclave and their vote, but Cardinal Nichols was able to share some detail on the moment Cardinal Robert Prevost accepted his election.
Asked about the atmosphere, he said: “It was elation, frankly, it really was.”
He spoke of the formal moment the cardinal was elected and asked if he accepted, to which he said there was a clear, “I accept”.
“That brought a round of applause,” Cardinal Nichols added.
The new Pope was elected on the fourth ballot on Thursday, with white smoke from the Sistine Chapel coming just over 24 hours after the doors had been closed for secret voting to begin.
Asked how he felt the new Pope might get on with the US administration under President Donald Trump, Cardinal Nichols said: “I haven’t given Trump a thought.”
The comments come as a Vatican expert from the UK, who has met the Pope, said she thinks he is likely to present a “quite challenging” message to Mr Trump but will not be confrontational.
Mr Trump spoke of the excitement and honour it is to have the first head of the 1.4 billion-member Catholic Church from North America.
Pope Leo has spoken of peace, unity and bridge-building, although a social media account in the 69-year-old’s name before he was elected shared posts critical of the Trump administration.
In February, it shared an opinion piece which chastised US Vice-President JD Vance as wrong about some aspects of Christian teaching.
Asked if this could make a first meeting between the US leaders and the new Pope awkward, UK theologian Professor Anna Rowlands said she thinks the pontiff will be able to avoid confrontation while also challenging them.
Speaking from Rome, she told the PA news agency: “He’s unlikely to be confrontational, I think, because of his nature, and yet I think the content of what he says will be quite challenging.
“I think he won’t want to simply judge Donald Trump. I think he will genuinely want to engage in a fruitful dialogue towards genuine human good, a just peace, security in the world, a genuine orientation towards real values – those are the kind of things he will want to enter into dialogue with the US administration on.”
Prof Rowlands, originally from Manchester but based in Durham, spent two years seconded to the Vatican during Francis’s papacy.
She met and shook hands with Pope Leo in the hours after his election on Thursday, describing the experience as “brief but really lovely”.
Posting on his Truth Social platform about the new pontiff, Mr Trump said: “What excitement, and what a great honour for our country. I look forward to meeting Pope Leo XIV. It will be a very meaningful moment!”
Mr Vance, who converted to Catholicism as an adult, also congratulated the new Pope, saying he is sure “millions of American Catholics and other Christians will pray for his successful work leading the Church”.
Mr Trump drew criticism over the weekend after sharing an artificial intelligence-generated image of himself dressed as the head of the Catholic Church on social media, before the secret conclave meeting had begun.
The new Pope celebrated mass in the Sistine Chapel on Friday, beginning his first full day in his role as the Church’s leader.
The Vatican has confirmed he will be formally installed at a mass on May 18.
Among other messages of congratulations were those from the King, who sent good wishes from himself and the Queen in a private message to the Pope, while Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said it was a “deeply profound moment of joy for Catholics in the United Kingdom and globally”.
